The Daily Doings of Mr Silly and Little Miss Trouble

Day One - 30 Days of Truth.

2010-11-01T19:19:00.010-05:00

It's been too long. I get overwhelmed by the time as it goes by ... and then I don't know how to play catch up ... I figure the best way to do it, is to not even try. So I won't!!

I stole this from another blogger, and I'm going to try to do it to get myself back blogging again.

It is called 30 Days of Truth.

Day 01 → Something you hate about yourself.
Day 02 → Something you love about yourself.
Day 03 → Something you have to forgive yourself for.
Day 04 → Something you have to forgive someone for.
Day 05 → Something you hope to do in your life.
Day 06 → Something you hope you never have to do.
Day 07 → Someone who has made your life worth living for.
Day 08 → Someone who made your life hell, or treated you like shit.
Day 09 → Someone you didn’t want to let go, but just drifted.
Day 10 → Someone you need to let go, or wish you didn’t know.
Day 11 → Something people seem to compliment you the most on.
Day 12 → Something you never get compliments on.
Day 13 → A band or artist that has gotten you through some tough ass days. (write a letter.)
Day 14 → A hero that has let you down. (letter)
Day 15 → Something or someone you couldn’t live without, because you’ve tried living without it.
Day 16 → Someone or something you definitely could live without.
Day 17 → A book you’ve read that changed your views on something.
Day 18 → Your views on gay marriage.
Day 19 → What do you think of religion? Or what do you think of politics?
Day 20 → Your views on drugs and alcohol.
Day 21 → (scenario) Your best friend is in a car accident and you two got into a fight an hour before. What do you do?
Day 22 → Something you wish you hadn’t done in your life.
Day 23 → Something you wish you had done in your life.
Day 24 → Make a playlist to someone, and explain why you chose all the songs. (Just post the titles and artists and letter)
Day 25 → The reason you believe you’re still alive today.
Day 26 → Have you ever thought about giving up on life? If so, when and why?
Day 27 → What’s the best thing going for you right now?
Day 28 → What if you were pregnant or got someone pregnant, what would you do?
Day 29 → Something you hope to change about yourself. And why.
Day 30 → A letter to yourself, tell yourself EVERYTHING you love about yourself

So, a little self reflection perhaps?? Let's see how I do ...

Day 1 - Something you hate about yourself.

This is a hard one. I mean, I hate to use the word hate. I mean, seriously. It's a pretty harsh word, and I've worked pretty hard to have some self acceptance. I mean, is there anything worth HATING about oneself?

So, I'm going to go with something totally ridiculous and superficial. I hate my hair. Seriously. It's stringy and thin and fine and lifeless and just terrible. I am utterly envious when I see girls with long thick hair. It's been my dream. Part of the thing I relished about my pregnancies was the thickening of my hair! And then to watch it all go down the drain post-babies made me want to just be pregnant forever! Unfortunately, DH was not so on board with this plan.

I dislike my hair SO much that I actually paid $400 for some fake hair when I got married. Me and my hair dresser went into NYC and bought these clip in real hair extensions ... and it was the best money I ever spent!

So ...here are two pics ... one is from my wedding day, the other is from my sister's babies 1st birthday this past August. I know you can't see my hair that well, but it's because I BARELY HAVE ANY! Ugh. I hate my hair. I wish I could wear extensions all the time.

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Now, totally having nothing to do with 30 days of truth, I need to put up pictures that I haven't uploaded yet for my mom.

Here are pics from our summer vacation to Lake George with my husband's family. The kids loved the Lake, and we really had a great time!!

I can't believe I didn't post pics from my sister's babies first birthday!! They turned ONE on August 12th!! Any boy did they enjoy their party!! There are also some pics from our trip to Outer Banks in this set.

Ok ... hoping to make this a more usual thing!
Enjoy,
Caba

Hiking

2010-05-20T20:13:00.006-05:00

So, I have a few friends that are very outdoorsy. Me? Not so much. I'm not big into the exercising, movement, nature, etc. You know what I mean? I like to lounge, drink, eat, lay in the sun, get pampered, and generally act like a sloth.

But now with the littles, I want to have a more active life. It's better for me, and it's better for them. I don't want them to grow up playing outside with Dad while mom sits around like a slug. I want to ride bikes with them, play ball, etc. So I am trying to make a concerted effort to do more stuff outside together as a family.

So, hiking. It's a misleading thing to say we are doing, as the kids move pretty damn slow. So it's more like a REEEAAALLLY slow stroll, especially with Moop stopping every 2 inches to point out yet ANOTHER ant! Yes, that really does happen! So it's not like we are power walking, burning a million calories and rock climbing. But it's a start, and the kids are REALLY enjoying it.

Our first hike this season was at a place called Duke Island Park. It's a park surrounded by the Raritan River, so there is water everywhere and the kids love walking around there. They also have a pretty good playground for the kids, post walk.

Dad and Boots & Mommy and Moop.

Moop walking down the trail. There is something I just love about this picture.

Throwing rocks into the river.

This past weekend we took them to another park, Hacklebarney State Park. It was really cool. All these awesome hiking trails, and beautiful scenery! It was slightly more challenging for the kids (ok, whatever, maybe us too!) because there were a lot of steep ups and downs. But the kids were total troopers! I was so proud of them!

Here are the three cutest hikers ever posing with their walking sticks.

Here is a smiling Boots throwing rocks in the river.

The Dude cleaning his hands.

And although this has nothing to do with hiking, I had a lovely Mother's Day with my parents, my sister, her husband, and her kids. They are getting so big!! Anthony has a billion teeth (or so it seems) and Sami just has the most bite-able cheeks EVER!

Here is my sister with her two favorite men, Moop and Anthony.

And here is Sami with her Daddy.

Moop and Little Ant, sharing a moment.

Alright, I think I'm all caught up now!!

Enjoy,
Caba

Playing Catch Up

2010-05-17T20:03:00.007-05:00

Yeah ... I'm still trying to get all my old pictures up so that my mom can order all the ones that she wants ...

Plus, it helps me remember what the hell we've been up to!!

So, for the twins birthday this year we took them away from the weekend. We considered doing a big party again, but thought better of it. We just did something small with immediate family, and took them to see Disney's Princesses on Ice. I know, it sounds very girly, but it wasn't. Yes, it had all the princesses in it, but also all the boys ... the 7 dwarfs, Genie and Aladdin, all the princes, etc. Boots and Moop really really enjoyed it. It was playing at the Arena at Hershey Park ... so we made a weekend out of it. We went to see the show on Saturday, and then spent the day at Hershey Park on Sunday.

My friend Kelly came as well with her twin daughters, so the kids were able to have a blast all together.

The kids had a blast at Hershey this year. We took them last September, and Boots was willing to go on any and every ride. But Moops was slightly more cautious. But for the first time, he rode on a horse on the carousel!! We were so excited for him! Usually he wants to sit on the bench. But this time he went on everything with no hesitation! What a champ!

Here are some pics from our yard. The kids got the coolest birthday gift from Aunt Chrissy and Uncle Anthony! A bounce house!!

We also got to spend some quality time with little Sami and Anthony! They are getting so big I can't stand it! Here is Sami with Grandma.

And here is Anthony with his Daddy.

Enjoy,
Caba

It's been a while ...

2010-04-27T19:15:00.005-05:00

I know ... I stink. I don't even know if anyone is reading ... but at this point I HAVE to put pic up, if only for my mother.

So much has changed since I last wrote! The twins had their 3rd birthday ... and we moved them into big beds! It wasn't nearly as traumatic as I expected it to be ... I think it helped that we moved them into separate rooms at the same time.

Pictures you say?? Well, pictures I have!! How awesome are these rooms?

Moops' Room - CARS Theme

Boots' Room - Princess Theme

The cribs were still in their rooms when I took these pics. They have since been removed. We had them there as a threat .... ya know "You better stay in your beds or you are going back in your cribs!". Well, that didn't work that well. The first morning after they slept in their beds, we went in to get Boots, and she was sitting in her crib, with the tent zipped up, reading a book. So yeah, the cribs are gone now. They also each got a cute table and chairs set from my parents for their birthdays.

Speaking of, we finally went low-key for their birthday. Nothing but immediate family. The last two years we threw these big parties, and I just didn't want to do it again. Here is a pic with their cousins on their birthday.

Easter was fun, and low-key. Just went to my parents house, dressed the kids up for like 5 minutes to get a few pics, and then went out to play in the beautiful weather! Perfect way to celebrate the rebirth that is Spring!!

What else? My parents took the kids to see the Circus! Awesome time at Madison Square Garden ... they had their first train ride into the city and they LOVED it ... And as great as the Circus was, I almost think their favorite part of the day was riding the escalator! Go figure!

And here are a bunch of miscellaneous shots ... a bunch of my sister's cuties ... They are getting SO BIG!!

Ok, that takes care of me playing catch up ... I have more to post tomorrow!! And Mom, all the pics are links to like a BILLION more pics ... so enjoy, and happy buying!

Enjoy,
Caba

Are you freaking kidding me??

2010-02-24T21:24:00.006-05:00

More.DAMN.SNOW.

Seriously. It is enough already. I'm snowed out at this point. We are supposed to be up to 2 feet tomorrow. Do you realize how annoying that is??

I am looking forward to just hunkering down, watching movies with the kids, making popcorn,etc. But really, it's just too much at this point. Where the hell is spring??

And now, the ABCs of me.

A is for Atheist. I'm an atheist. Yup. That's the truth.

B is for Bitch. I'm also a bitch. And I'm very proud of it.

C is for Chrissy. That's my sister. She's my best friend and my favorite person.

D is for Days of our Lives. I've been watching this show since I was like 12. I still record it every.single.day.

E is for Eggplant. This is one of my favorite veggies, and I make a mean Eggplant Parm.

F is for Freethinkers. It's my forum that I run with some friends, and it's an awesome group of people that talk about everything. F is also for my friends, who rock.

G is for German. I'm half German. My Dad moved to the US from Germany when he was like 19. My husband and I went to Germany with my Dad a few years ago, and it was just an awesome trip.

H is for Hawaii. I went here with my DH on our honeymoon, and it was just one of the most beautiful places in the world. We definitely want to go back one day together, hopefully with the kids too.

I is for Ice Cream. My favorite flavor is probably Mint Chocolate Chip. But I do also enjoy some soft serve vanilla with rainbow sprinkles. And no, I'm not 5 years old.

J is for jewelry. I do enjoy it. I work for an awesome jewelry company, not that I can afford to buy most of their stuff. But I do enjoy pretty stuff. I just tend to buy cheapy costume stuff. I have a lot of it.

K is for kittens. I don't like them. Or cats. I'm not a cat person.

L is for Lake George, NY. Love it there. We go there every summer with DH's family and that's where DH proposed to me. Once of my favorite places.

M is for money. I wish I had more. I need more. I hate not having enough of the stuff.

N is for Naughty Monkey. It's a brand of shoes that my friend Keri introduced me to. I order them from Amazon.com and LOOOVE them. Cute and trendy and fun. I usually wait till they are on sale and can get a good deal.

O is for Orange Soda. Diet Sunkist to be precise. It's like my crack. I'm thoroughly addicted to it. Anytime I'm drinking something my kids now ask "Is that orange soda, Mommy?". Yes. Yes it is. Now stay away from it!

P is for Percocet. I love it. I got it after my C-section and held onto it like it was gold. DH found a few pills in his drawer the other day that he had from something, and I grabbed it like it was worth a million dollars. It almost is.

Q is for quiet. I don't get enough of it anymore. But I really enjoy it.

R is for rice. Ya know, I used to not really like rice. I mean, I didn't hate it, but I would never opt for it. I would rather have any other card side dish than rice. But lately, I've been really enjoying it. We switched from white to brown, and it's yummy.

S is for Stern. Howard Stern. I love him. I'm a total groupie. I listen every day on the way to work, I listen online all day at work. Seriously. I will cry huge crocodile tears if he leaves Sirius at the end of his contract.

T is for tolerance. I pride myself on it. And I wish that more people had it.

U is for underwear. Yup, the bane of my existence. My kids don't want to wear it. I asked Moop the other day if he wanted to try underwear like a big kid, and he told me "No Mommy, I like my diaper." GREEEAAAAT.

V is for vegetables. Another problem. Moop won't eat 'em. We joined a CSA for the summer, and I'm hoping we get a lot of cool new veggies to introduce the kids to.

W is for Wet Hot American Summer. Super funny movie. If you haven't seen it, Netflix it.

X is for X-Ray Vision. No, I don't have it. But I would like to.

Y is for Yankees. I HATE the Yankees. Yes, I live in the NY area, and I hate them. I am a fan of the Mets and Red Sox. And I repeat, I HATE the Yankees.

Z is for Zoe. That's my pug that lives at my parents house. I love the name Zoe, and I always wanted to name my daughter Zoe. Unfortunately, the pug came along first, and we named her that, and it kinda ruined the name for my kid.

Enjoy,
Caba

Hi ICLWers!

2010-02-21T20:21:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since I particpated in ICLW. From Mel's blog:

"Welcome back to IComLeavWe. It stands for International Comment Leaving Week, but if you say it aloud, doesn’t it sounds like “I come; [but] leave [as a] we”? And that’s sort of the point. Blogging is a conversation and comments should be honoured and encouraged. I like to say that comments are the new hug–a way of saying hello, giving comfort, leaving congratulations."

So, I welcome you new readers to my blog!! I'm Caba. I have almost 3 year old twins (Moop and Boots) after conceiving via IVF/ICSI. I also gave birth to my niece and nephew in Aug 2009 for my sister and her husband. It was both an honor and a priviledge to be a gestational carrier for my sister and her husband ... and she is currently in the chaotic bliss of 6 month old twinfants.

Thanks to my sister, I got my 15 minutes of fame. A Baby Story chronicled our journey, and you can see it if you'd like! We put it up on youtube. Here is a link to the blog post where I put the clips. Enjoy. I apologize in advance for making anyone cry.

So yeah, now this blog is in a kinda weird place. I still talk about the kids, but that's not all. I don't really talk about infertility, since my journey is over and our family is complete. I am outspoken, brash, and very stubborn. I like to talk about being a liberal, atheist, kick ass kinda girl. And I certainly don't apologize for it.

Hope you come back to visit again soon!

Caba

Can you kiss my nose?

2010-02-17T19:50:00.003-05:00

So, I was sitting here contemplating a blog post, and listening to screaming/laughing/yelling/etc through the monitor. Boots is yelling for her monkey, Moop is singing "Bippity Boppity Boo". You know, just a normal night in the nuthouse. I try not to go in there that often once we say goodnight. I don't want to become a slave to their every whim. So I'm watching Chopped, DH is cleaning out his dresser, and we are ignoring the kids.

But then Boots switches to a non-stop mantra of "Mommymommymommmymommmymommmymommmy". One long extremely grating word. It never ends. It could on on forever. And in the background you hear "Mommy, Boots needs you!". Yeah, thanks Moop. I *never* would have figured that out on my own.

Here is the exchange when I enter their room.

Boots: "Mommy. Where is my tiger?"
Me: "I don't know, Boots. It was in your crib before. Maybe it's hidden amongst all the crap in your crib."
Boots: "I can't find it".

Mommy turns on the light, blinding her children and herself. Finds tiger hidden amongst 10 books, 1 enormous monkey dressed in a tutu, 3 princess dolls, Dora, Bert, and Prairie Dawn. Hands Tiger to Boots.

Boots: "Oh, THERE is it. Thanks Mommy."
Me: "Ok, everyone go to bed now. If I have to come in here again, I am talking away your books."
Moop: "DON'T TAKE MY BOOKS!"
Me: "Moop, go to bed now. I love you both. Good night"

Silence from Boots.

Moop: "Mommy?"
Me: "Yes, Moop?"
Moop: "Can you kiss my toes?"

Really? Really? This is what my life has become.

Me: "Ok Moop, stick your feet out." I lean over and kiss both feet through the slats of the crib.
Moop: "Can you kiss my nose now?"
Me (laughing): "Ok, let me see that nose." Kiss his nose through the crib slats.
Moop: "Can you kiss my cheek Mommy?"
Me: "I sure can." Kiss his fat little cheek through the crib slats.
Moop (turning his other cheek) "And this one too Mommy?"
Me: "Yup". Kisses his other fat cheek. "Ok, bub, go to bed now".
Moop: "I love you Mommy."
Me: "I love you too."

Boots (quietly from the other side of the room) "I love you too Mommy".

And then I realize, I'm ok with what my life has become.

Enjoy,
Caba

Friday Five: Warmth

2010-02-12T20:10:00.007-05:00

I stole this from Delenn

It's Friday and time for Friday Five!
Want to play along? You can either leave your answers in the comments or leave a comment that you've posted it onto your own blog.

Today's topic is things that keep you warm. So, here goes!

What is your favorite blanket like?
DH got me a pink snuggie from Brookstone. It is so warm and cozy and I just LOVE it. ummm, snuggie.

What was the last thing you baked?
Last night I baked Brownies to bring into daycare for the kids Valentine's Day Party.

What television personality gets you most hot and bothered?
Hmmm. Don't make fun ok? I've had a crush forever on Freddie Prinze Jr. Also LOOOOVVVVE Bradley Cooper! He's super hot ... and I do consider him tv as I first noticed him on Alias.

When did you last burn yourself?
Wednesday morning morning while making chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes. I put a little bit of chocolate chip in my mouth straight from the griddle and it was freaking HOT!

What are your feelings about hot sauce?
I have a serious problem when it comes to hot sauce. I've been putting it on EVERYTHING at work. Like, seriously, everything. From eggs to my chicken wrap to dipping french fries in it. I have no idea why. It's a disgusting hot mystery.

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We ordered big beds for the kids! Nothing exciting ... just two twin beds. The plan is to set up their rooms, split them up and move them into big kid beds for their 3rd birthday in April. I'm very excited, and sad a the same time. My bubs are growing up!

So, we forgot our camera at my sister's twins Christening a few weeks back. Which means we didn't get any cute pics of the twins in their fancy outfits. Little Anthony didn't even make it to the party afterwards, because he had RSV prior, so my sister didn't want him around all those people.

Here is a picture of me and Sami. Everyone says she looks like me!

Here is a pic of me and my grown up little Miss Boots.

And here are my three favorite people in the whole world!

Enjoy,
Caba

The Hypocrisy of the Abortion Issue

2010-02-09T20:43:00.004-05:00

This post has nothing to do with my children ... if you are only interested in kid related things ... you might want to skip this one!

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I'm pro-choice. 100% unequivocally, regardless of reasoning behind it, pro-choice. I don't care if you are told from your doctor that you need to terminate a pregnancy even though you don't want to, or if you are a teenager that is on your 14th abortion, I am pro-choice. I do not want anyone telling me what I can or can not do with my body, therefore I will extend the same respect to others.

I don't *like* abortion. But really, does anyone? Does anyone honestly think there are people that have sex thinking "Oh gosh, I really hope I get pregnant tonight so I can abort it!"? That's ridiculous. Of course not.

Sometimes I think the anti-abortionists are just stupid. They always make it sounds like people make some quickie decision to run out and have an abortion after picking up some milk and bread. Ya know, like it's the "easy" choice. And yes, I will use the term anti-abortion, not pro-life. Everyone is pro-life. If we weren't, we would be running around killing ourselves. It's illogical. And how many of those anti-abortionists are pro-death penalty? Or pro-war? A whole ton of 'em. It's the whole conservative right wing Republican view point.

But my absolute favorite is that most Republicans are against welfare, food stamps, WIC, etc. All those programs that help people who can't afford things themselves. So, they want to FORCE all women who get pregnant to have the baby, but as SOON as that baby comes out, they refuse to take care of it. They don't want programs for single moms. We all know the tagline "Get off your lazy ass and get a job if you need money. Get a job if you need benefits." Because, ya know, that's easy. It's SOOOO easy to get a job with benefits ... that's why there is NO ONE is the USA without medical benefits, right? Yeah, exactly.

So I guess they have no problem making a woman have a child, even if that women is a child. Even if that women has no job, no benefits, no means of taking care of the child. But once that baby is here, that lazy ass women should get off welfare and stop having so many babies she can't afford. Is it just me, or is this a total "WTF!" moment?

Blech. All this BS surrounding the stupid Tim Tebow commercial is annoying. We were discussing it on a board I belong to, and someone commented that there should have been a counter ad with a mom saying "Here's my son. I should have aborted him" and it was Charles Manson. Not every baby grows up to be Tim Tebow. Not every mom survives. Yeah for her for ignoring her doctors and having everything come up roses in the end. How about an ad that show a 5 year old girl crying saying "I wish my mom had listened to her doctor" after she lost her mom during a subsequent pregnancy where the mother ignored her doctors, and DIDN'T make it. It's just not as black and white as people make it out to be. Which is why I am so very pro-choice. I think this tough of a decision needs to be between a woman and her family. And I am not the type of human being that wants to sit around and judge a women after making what is probably the toughest decision of her life. Abortions happen for all sorts of reasons. Some we consider "acceptable" (rape, the mother is going to die), some we consider unacceptable. I'm not willing to make the differentiation. I wish that more people would focus on THEIR family ... and not mine, or anyone elses.

Here is a fantastic blog post that everyone should read. Mrs Spit Still Spouting Off

Enjoy,
Caba

Are you a Republican?

2010-02-06T14:38:00.004-05:00

If so, you might not like my link I am about to post.

Have you read their blog? Margaret and Helen It is fantastic.

And this post, well damn, it's a good one. So I figured I would share it will you all.

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On the home front, things are status quo. My sister's twins were christening a few weeks ago, but we forgot the camera in the church, so I have no good pictures. And you will be happy to know that neither me or my husband burst into flames when we walked into the church.

I did laugh to myself when I promised (as Godmother) to help raise the kids in the Catholic faith. If it's up to me, those kids will be questioning everything in Sunday school. I'll be all "Ask the teacher why incest was ok after Adam and Eve had kids, but why it's not allowed anymore. Ask the teacher if he *really* believes there was a talking snake. Ask the teacher if he believes in evolution. Ask the teacher if you get pregnant in high school, do you think you could use the *immaculate conception* excuse, and might your parents believe you."

hehe ... Yup, I'm going to be an AWESOME Godmother.

We did get some snow today ... nothing insane ... like 5-6 inches. The kids are napping, I'm blogging, and then it's playdoh time after they wake up.

I took some cute pics of them this morning, playing in their tent and tunnel thingy they got from Santa. I will post soon.

Enjoy,
Caba

So ... who would like an invite ...

2010-01-29T20:59:00.002-05:00

So, after the [evil site] debacle, my friends and I decided that as wonderful as it is to talk and snark amongst ourselves, which we do so friggin' well, we would like to chat with some of the other friends with made out in this big crazy internet. So, we started our own little forum. It's completely closed, which means that you can't stumble across it and sign up. You have to be invited ... We want to make sure we like the people there ...

So, who wants to join us? Yes, a lot of us are atheists/agnostics/alternative belief system chicks, but not everyone. We even have a nutty born again Christian who is both insane and very funny at the same time.

And it's not all about religion ... we talk parenting tips, current affairs, tv shows, cooking, crafting, shopping, fashion, etc.

The cool thing is that it's not one of those huge sites with 20 billion people that you feel are impossible to get to know people. It's small, intimate if you will.

There are LOTS of multiple mommies ... since we all came from the same site... but we've opened it up to our person friends as well, so there are singleton mommies as well.

More importantly, it's no bullshit, you can curse, you can talk freely, there isn't any bullshit politics or mods on power trips. Just cool people chatting it up.

Anyway, if you would like an invite, I need your email address.

You can email me at caba.twins@gmail.com. Because we aren't opening it up to the world, I'm not willing to let strangers in ... sorry. You need to give me a link to your blog or I need to "know you" as a frequent commenter. Sorry, just trying to keep it cool. We may eventually open it up to others, but not right now.

So, come join us! We do have a subforum to discuss all things non-religious, if there are any AAAers out there ... but we also have one for the believers.

Email me!
Caba

My Princess

2010-01-22T20:52:00.008-05:00

I always really wanted a little girl. I'm sure that was partly because I AM a girl ... so I figured I would know what to do with one. I didn't know what it would be like to have a boy.

Well, let me just say that the Moop is like my best friend. I can't imagine not having that little dude. OMG, I adore him.

But this is about my little girl. She is so freaking cute. Seriously. And she is SUCH a girl. She loves playing dress up, loves putting on all her princess jewelry and princess high heels and walking around the house. She will walk up to me or her father and say "Mom, am I SO pretty?" ... and I will say "Boots, you are beautiful." And she is.

And, like every good princess, she has the CUTEST shoes EVER and lovely painted pink toes!!

God I love this kid.

Enjoy,
Caba

For Your Viewing Pleasure ...

2010-01-19T15:43:00.002-05:00

I've uploaded our Baby Story episode to youtube!! So for any of you that may have missed it ... here it is!! Youtube doesn't allow you to upload a video that is longer than 10 minutes, so we had to split it into three different videos ... Enjoy!!

Triolo Baby Story Part One

Triolo Baby Story Part Two

Triolo Baby Story Part Three

Caba (aka Baby Story STAR!)

Friends

2010-01-18T10:52:00.007-05:00

I want to talk about my friends today, specifically my online friends. I used to belong to a site for parenting. I'm not going to give them a shout out, because it's run by a bunch of fucking nasty, lonely, uptight, jealous bitches, and they don't deserve me sending anyone there. But, I digress ...

I joined the site and quickly found myself arguing with a lot of people. I'm not one to hold my tongue, and I'm not good at not giving up. When I'm arguing an issue, and I think I'm right, I will argue to the bitter end about it. The first big argument was about Healthcare. Yes, I'm embarrassed to say that I was on what I now consider to be the wrong side of the debate. I was talking against universal healthcare, and against there being a way for everyone to have healthcare. My stance was "If you want it, get a job." Now, this post isn't about that, and please don't yell at me! I have seen the error of my ways. I am now 100% for a universal healthcare system, or at least, a true public option. I don't believe that anyone in this country should be without healthcare. And it shouldn't be tied to your job. But again, this is about healthcare. We'll save that for another day. So, there were all these crazy liberals that I was fighting with on this site. Ugh, I hated them. Especially this bitch Jenni, who was REALLY rude to me.

So, fast forward to a month later, and someone posted about a friend who was pregnant with 5! FIVE! babies. WTF, right? Of course, it was after IUI. And everyone and their mom was responding with "Tell her to trust in God", "Tell her to pray on it", "God never gives us more than we can handle" or some such nonsense. I'm reading these comments thinking "Really? This is the advice???" ... So I chimed in with "Well, I'm an atheist. So the idea of giving something to God is silly to me. I would get many opinions from doctors, figure out all the risk, and talk with my husband and listen to my gut" or something like that.

Well, boy did I get hammered!!! "How DARE you say believing in God is silly! ... "God is NOT silly, and he will listen to you!" blah blah blah and more blah. I felt like Alice, but instead of falling into a rabbit hole, I feel smack dab into some sort of evangelical God-loving nightmare.

But the good that came out of it was a private message I got from Jenni, the bitch from the Healthcare thread. She said "OMG! Another atheist! I feel bad for being so mean to you in that other thread. I thought this site was nicknamed Jesus Loves [site name]". And thus, a friendship was born. Being the outspoken atheist and pot stirrer that I am, I started a thread to see if there were others like us. And low and behold, there were A LOT. It was awesome. And friendships were born. That bitch Jenni, well, I love her now. She's still a bitch, but so I am, and so is Anne, so the three of us are like triplets. Anne and I were separated at birth. How two people, one who lives in NJ and one who lives in Pakistan, can be the same person is beyond me. But we are. Hell, we would even have the same patronus. And the lovely Kelly, well, she decided to petition for an area all our own, a subforum where we could discuss parenting beyond belief. And she got it. Because she is awesome like that. And then we were able to talk about all the things you CAN'T or SHOULDN'T talk about in the public. Like how ridiculous we think religion is. And I met Millie, a person who is so different from me in so many ways, yet is a kindred spirit. And I met Siri and Ellen, two women that are so smart, so strong, so together (or so it seems) and yet so human. They have taught me a lot of different things in my life, taught me about ways in which I want to try and better myself. And I met Kristi, who is so outspoken and honest, and such an amazing and loyal friend. And Michaele, who has biting humor, a sharp tongue and a HUGE heart. She is fiercely loyal, and just an amazing friend. And I met Debi, who always makes me laugh and always scares me about the impending growing up of my twins, seeing the chaos her boys get into! And lastly, a newer addition, Rachael. A brilliantly intelligent woman, who is so secure in herself, it's a wonderful thing to see and look up to. Plus, she likes to fight about as much (if not MORE) than I do!

So, I have to say. I'm glad to be gone from that stupid site. I was banned for making a rude comment about mor(m)ons and their magic underwear. And yes, they do believe in magic underwear. Look it up. It's fucking funny, really. But I made the most amazing friends on it. And these friendships, they have evolved beyond that site. To us talking every day, all day. To me not working because I'm too busy chatting with Millie. To us planning a trip to see each other in Reno in March. To these women knowing my inner most secrets. I would venture they know more about me right now than some people in my real life.

I couldn't have asked for a better group of heathens. I love you guys more than you will ever know. Thank you for your friendship, your loyalty, your support. Thank you for forgetting about that selfish bitch that was against universal healthcare, and giving Caba another chance to fall into your good graces. Thank you for teaching me to be a better parent, a better person, and a better human being. Thank you for never letting me down. Jenni, Anne, Siri, Michaele, Ellen, Debi, Kristi, Kelly, Millie and Rachael, you girls mean the world to me. I'm glad to have found you all. I will forever be thankful to [evil site] for that. Love you all!

32 Flavors

2010-01-14T20:30:00.002-05:00

My friend SweetPeaG said that this song lyrics were in honor of me. I love her for that. She is right, ya know. I am pretty fucking great. Sorry for the cursing, but it's warranted at times.

This has nothing to do with my kids, as you can probably tell. It's a drama that I will save for another day, because it's late, and I'm tired, and I can't rehash it at this moment. But when SweetPeaG sent me these lyrics I realized, god damn I have made some great friends. And for that, I will forever be grateful.

"32 Flavors"

squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
and I'm beyond your peripheral vision
so you might want to turn your head
cause someday you're going to get hungry
and eat most of the words you just said

both my parents taught me about good will
and I have done well by their names
just the kindness I've lavished on strangers
is more than I can explain
still there's many who've turned out their porch lights
just so I would think they were not home
and hid in the dark of their windows
til I'd passed and left them alone

and god help you if you are an ugly girl
course too pretty is also your doom
cause everyone harbors a secret hatred
for the prettiest girl in the room
and god help you if you are a pheonix
and you dare to rise up from the ash
a thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy
while you are just flying back

I'm not trying to give my life meaning
by demeaning you
and I would like to state for the record
I did everything that I could do
I'm not saying that I'm a saint
I just don't want to live that way
no, I will never be a saint
but I will always say

squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
And I'm beyond your peripheral vision
So you might want to turn your head
Cause someday you might find you're starving
and eating all of the words you said

Ani Difranco

Enjoy,
Caba

PS - Hey Jori! Thanks for stopping by! Email me: caba.twins@gmail.com

The weekend comes to a close ...

2010-01-10T14:09:00.005-05:00

I'm so tired. It was a long week this week ... Moop was home sick Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Luckily my mom was able to watch him on Mon and Wed, and I work from home on Tues, so neither DH or I had to take any days off of work. Everyone is finally healthy. Let's hope it last for at least a week!

I need to catch up on pictures, so that I can actually start writing about some interesting stuff. Here are all the pics from Christmas.

I am fairly please with this picture from Christmas. Boots doesn't look super happy, but hey, it's pretty close!

Enjoy,
Caba

Moop is sick.

2010-01-04T20:33:00.010-05:00

He got whatever his sister had. Luckily my wonderful mom came over to hang with him today. He has a fever, thrown up a few times, overall phlegmy and coughing a lot. I feel bad for the poor Bubba.

So has anyone else out there looked for FeverAll lately? If you don't know what it is, its acetomenephen (tylenol) but it's a suppository. I give it to the kids when they have stomach issues, so that they don't have to take their meds by mouth. With Moop throwing up, I wanted to give him the FeverAll for his fever. We only had 2 left, so I went out at lunch to the local CVS by my work. They didn't have any. Ok, no problem, I'd never bought it there before, only in the CVS by my house. So, I stopped there on the way home. They were out, and it was backordered for MONTHS. What the hell?? And they didn't have any other equivalent. What a pain in the ass. So I came home, and my mom said he hadn't throw up all day, so I gave him a little tylenol by mouth. Bad idea. About 15 minutes later, he throws up all over the couch. LOVELY.

So, I went on a mad internet hunt, and find Acephen (same thing, different maker) and found a Rite Aid that had some close by. So DH ran out to get it. Ugh. What an ordeal. But I hate seeing my little man suffer with a fever, and not be able to help him.

So, luckily I telecommute on Tuesdays, so I'll be home with him tomorrow. If he's still feverish in the morning, I may run him into the doc just to make sure it's nothing else. But Boots had the same thing over the holiday, and it was just viral, so I don't really think he has anything else.

So, I need to put all my pics up here for my family who want to order them ... so bear with the old pics for a while.

Here are pics from Thanksgiving. We hosted DH's family, plus my parents and brother. It was like 15 adults and 5 kids. It really was a lot of fun!

Here are pics encompassing A LOT of stuff. We took the kids to pick out our Christmas tree, my sister and her husband took us to the Big Apple Circus, and the Christmas card photo shoot.

Here are the kids in their new Rudolph and Clarice sweatshirts going to get our Christmas tree!

And here they are looking cute as can be getting ready to leave for the Circus!

And here is one of the pics that made the Christmas Card this year. Mr Moop looks so grown up to me!

Enjoy,
Caba

Family Get Together

2010-01-02T21:16:00.006-05:00

We had a family get together today with all my cousins on my mom's side of the family. Since everyone has gotten married/had kids, etc, we don't do all the holidays together like we used to when we were younger. So last year we started doing a party somewhere around the holidays to see everyone. It was a fun time, and the kids were suprisingly well behaved. I'll take it. Here is a pic of all the ladies. Lots more pics from the party if you click on the link.

Boots was sick over this long weekend. We took her to the doc Wednesday night, and it appeared to be viral. She had a horrible cough, a fever, a non-stop running nose, etc. It sucked. It's just the worst when you can't give them anything to make them feel better, ya know? She appears to be over it now, fever has been gone for well over 24 hours. I was happy she was able to make it to the party today.

Christmas was really wonderful this year. The kids really got it. They were excited for Santa. They ran downstairs on Christmas morning (well, after we reassured the Moop like 25 times that Santa was NOT in the house anymore. Yes, he left you your gifts, then left!) and were so excited about all their toys. It was so funny to see them open a gift, and then just be done. Moop opened one book and wanted to play with it and be done. Meanwhile, there is like a billion other gifts for him! And he would get all excited and be like "more for me, mom?" ... LOVE him.

They got more stuff than any two kids should get. Besides Santa spoiling them, my mother was crazy as usual with a ton of stuff, including a train table for Moop and a dollhouse for Boots. My sister also went nuts, and this was just Christmas Day! We then went to see DH's family the Sunday after Christmas, and they got a ton more stuff. Can you say spoiled? Because they sure are!

The house is still all Christmas'ed out. We will probably undecorate sometime this week, but I hate it! It always makes the house look so damn boring after putting everything away.

I have to put up more Christmas pics ... but I'm too lazy to do it now ... I need a nap while the littles nap!

Enjoy,
Caba

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T20:53:00.003-05:00

It's late ... but it's January 1st. And I'm going to resolve to post at least twice a week. Which probably means this blog is going to not be so baby-centric.

I have so many pictures to post, from Christmas and just random cuteness. But tonight is not the night for that.

But I will leave you with a cute pic of my twins and my sister's twins ... can you handle all the adorableness??

Enjoy,
Caba

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T20:46:00.003-05:00

OMG. I suck so bad. I know it, truly I do. I'm honestly try to figure out what to do with this site. Yeah, I can still do kid updates, but it's getting old, and I'm getting bored with it. I feel like I need to start writing stuff FOR ME.

But, that's not going to happen tonight! haha ... So, what the hell has been going on since I lasted posted? The kids are doing great. They are getting so big and cute and very excited for the holidays. I got what might be my favorite picture I've ever taken of them.

Halloween was a success. We had an adorable Tinkerbell and Captain Hook. They really liked going trick or treating ... Unfortunately it was all crappy and rainy by us, so we only went to a few houses.

The best thing that has happened in the past few weeks was our trip to ARUBA! Yup, my sister and her husband graciously gave me and my DH a trip to Aruba as a thank you for carrying the twins. My parents took my kids for the week, so it was just me and DH relaxing, drinking, sleeping in. Ahhhhh, heaven. Here we are at dinner right on the beach ... it was gorgeous.

We have a busy weekend ahead of us. We are hosting Thanksgiving at our house with 16 adults and 5 kids. Then Friday we are going to get our Christmas tree and decorate the tree and our entire house. Then Saturday we are going with my sister and her husband to take our kids to the circus! Should be lots of fun ... We are also going to attempt at taking the picture for our Christmas card this weekend! Fingers crossed for that please!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Love,
Caba

Fall is here ...

2009-10-18T12:53:00.005-05:00

I know ... I suck. I start way too many posts like this ... I need to figure out what I want this blog to be, and then I think I will be better at it ... I need to post all the kid pics, because a lot of family and friends come here to see them ... but Facebook has kind of taken over for some of that. Oh well, I'll figure it out.

Anyway, what have we been up to you ask? Well, we've had some fun weekends with the kids ... scheduling playdates, going places, trying to keep them happy and busy. Oh, and yes, I am back at work now. That does kind of suck. I didn't realize how much time I had to get stuff done while I wasn't working and wasn't taking care of the kids. The laundry never backed up, the house was always in some sort of order, I made dinner almost every night. It was crazy! But, all good things come to an end. And staying home while getting paid and not watching my kids was definitely a GOOD thing!

So, I got some cute pics of a day at the park with the kids. There was a local town fair, but I screw it up, and went too late and it was basically ending, so we just hung out and played on the swings. The kids loved the swings, so it was all good!

I haven't been able to see my sister's twins as much as I would like. Between me going back to work, and her living farther than she used to, and my kids being sick a lot, it's been tough. We all had dinner at my parents one night, and Boots was showing Sami some lovin'.

And Grandma with little Anthony

And I just love this picture of the kids in my bed together in the morning. We have a daily tradition of everyone piling into mommy and daddy's bed when they wake up, and putting on some sort of movie ... Boots was pretending to be sleeping ...

We had a really fun time two weeks ago when DH's band got together for a little reunion. It was a really good time ... We ate some food, the guys played for a while, and all the kids got to play together. After the guys were done playing, they let the kids mess around singing into the microphone and playing the drums. Moop LOVED playing the drums (yes, that does scare me). Here here is playing the drums, and Boots is patiently waiting next to him for her turn. And yes, he is wearing a Run DMC shirt!

When it was Boots' turn to play, Moop WAS NOT happy about it. He's not so great with the waiting for his turn thing.

Then last weekend we went to take the kids pumpkin picking and they had a blast. Here is Moop helping Boots cheat in the hay maze and go OVER the path, instead of following it!

And then a cute pic taken by Daddy of the 3 of us on the hay ride!

We are brining the kids up to see my sister tonight, so hopefully we will get some more pics of her twins with mine!

Enjoy,
Caba

A Baby Story

2009-10-02T07:53:00.003-05:00

We have a date!!

Our episode will air on Friday Oct 30th at 1pm on TLC. I'm excited and nervous. I didn't really think that my 15 minutes of fame would be me all fat and pregnant on tv. haha.

But I think it's going to be amazing to see the journey. And it's going to be an awesome keepsake for my sister and the babies.

On a not so happy note, I go back to work on Tuesday the 6th. I'm so not ready. This staying home, not working, not taking care of kids, and just lounging around all day thing is REALLY NICE. Unfortunately, it's not affordable. So, off to work I go.

More updates and pics coming soon!
Caba

Back to our regularly scheduled programming ...

2009-09-16T08:16:00.008-05:00

So, I guess this blog will now turn back into a blog about my twins. I really need to update more often, I know! Don't yell at me!

Ok ... so, what's been going on, you ask? Well, a whole lot of nothing, I suppose. I'm still enjoying my maternity leave. It all comes to an end on Oct 6th. That is my first day back at work. No, I'm certainly not looking forward to it! I didn't realize how much I would love this SAHW (stay at home wife) thing. I'm not a stay at home mom, being that my kids are in daycare all day. But man, this is the life!! Being home all day, no one else is here, I'm still getting paid, I need to find a way to keep this up! haha ...

I've been doing a lot better physically now. I've had a lot of issues since the birth. I explained all about the HELLP and complications from that. But then I finally started feeling better, and got this horrible shoulder/chest/stomach pain that lasted almost a week! I was really scared that I had another perforated ulcer. I had that 4 years ago, and needed emergency surgery to repair it. And it kinda felt the same! Luckily I was able to get into see my gastroenterologist and get an endoscopy done. My stomach looked good, and no ulcers! Woo hoo! I also had another chest x-ray done, since I was having chest pain, but lungs and chest were clear. The doc thinks it was more of a muscle pull type thing. Thankfully it's all gone, and I feel somewhat like a normal person again. Yeah!

My sister's twins are doing good. Getting big and thriving. My sister, on the other hand, is having a hard time of it. The kids are not good sleepers, and they have their days and nights confused, so they tend to be at their worst in the middle of the night. I feel bad, and wish there was more I could do. Having infants is so draining on the parents. No one can prepare you for the lack of sleep and how that affects everything. Then multiply it by two!! Ugh! But it will pass ... I think they are considering getting a night nurse to help out a little bit.

My two are doing great. They are just getting so darn big! They talk NON STOP! I can't believe I was ever worried about speech with them! My DH spoke late, so I was worried about them speaking. But seriously, they won't shut up. The questions are non-stop, and the sentences are now like full adult sentences that I would say. I'm so impressed by their vocabulary.

We haven't started potty training. They do it at daycare, put them on the potty every time there is a diaper change, but I just couldn't see dealing with that while pregnant, and recovering from the c-section. So now I am going to start actively working at the potty training thing. Wish me luck, and any advice is appreciated!

Lastly, we went away this past weekend to Hershey Park with the kids. I wanted to do some sort of mini family vacay while the weather was still nice. We left on Saturday morning and it was about a 2 hour drive. They were TERRORS when we first arrived there. It was raining, so we went to Choclate World to pass the time until we could check into the hotel. Moop was great, he held my hand the whole time and was very well behaved. Boots was totally out of control. She didn't want to hold hands, didn't want to be in the stroller, didn't want to be held, didn't really want to hang out with us! She just wanted to run around like a banshee. Finally, we decided to leave, and I took Boots to buckle her in the stroller as she was screaming. My little angel Moop decided to turn into a devil, and just took off in the parking lot. DH was chasing him, and he almost got hit by a tram car. Seriously.

We got them in the car, and DH and I were honestly considering driving all the way back to NJ. I just couldn't imagine a whole weekend with them like that. The cheap part of us won out (because we would have had to pay for the hotel no matter what) so we went to the hotel. It was really nice. We got a 2 bedroom suite so that the kids could have their own room, we could have our own room, and then there was a living room and full kitchen. We were smart to bring our DVD player from home ... so we watched a lot of Cars, Peter Pan and Dora/Diego.

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous out, so we went to Hershey Park for the whole day. The kids were SO much better behaved. They loved the rides, loved the park, loved everything! Although both of them got stung by bees. Yup, you read that right. BOTH. It was SO bizarre. First of all, the park was overrun with bees. I don't know why. We were on this train ride, and Mr Moop suddenly started to cry and rub is arm. Just as the ride started to move, I realized he got stung. I was scared to death because he had never been stung, so I had no idea if he would have a reaction. We took him off the ride, and went to the First Aid. The people there were awesome. They put some stuff on it to numb the area, made sure the stinger was out, and gave him a little bag of ice. He was fine within 30 minutes and his arm was fine. So I'm glad he's not allergic.

Boots is a much more adventurous ride girl! She would go on anything, regardless of whether she had to go on by herself or not! She went on a balloon ride alone, the swings alone, and loved sitting on the horse on the carousel. Moop sits on the bench! haha. They both LOVED the mini log flume too.

Then like 4 hours later as we were leaving the park for naps, Boots says "I have a boo boo arm too Mommy." ... I thought she was just imitating Moop, but I played along and said "Let me see your boo boo". And no shit, she had been stung! She didn't cry at all though! She's much tougher. So we were right at the exit, and the First Aid was all the way on the other side of the park. So we told the security guard, and he called the EMTs over to the exit. They came and took care of Boots and she was fine. She was even dancing in the stroller as we were waiting for the EMTs. That kid is a trooper!

Unfortunately, they both fell asleep for the 10 minute ride to the hotel, and then woke up, and that was it for naps! So we went back to the park for dinner and more rides until it closed at 8pm. They were really very good that day.

On Monday we took them to the zoo, and back to Chocolate World for lunch. I think maybe it was that Chocolate World place, because as soon as we got back in there, they started acting like psychos again! So, we bought lots of chocolate (Hershey is my fave!) and got in the car to drive home.

And now, if you've made it this far, pictures!!!

Here are some silly pics we took of the kids one night before bed.

Here's Boots in her favorite ballerina pjs. I need to sign her up for dance class soon! And Mr Moop doing his super cute smile!

This is one of my favorite pictures. Boots was practicing her "sad face". This is the face that is going to cost us millionaires of dollars through the teenage years. Because if she pulls out this face, there is NO WAY we will be able to say no to anything she asks!

And a cute pic of Daddy and Moop.

And some pics from Hershey! Here are Boots and Moop on the Dinosaur Ride having a blast!

And ironically, the kids LOVED the bee ride!

Mr Moop having fun on the car ride.

Boots on her motorcycle

And a picture of Daddy and Boots.

Enjoy,
Caba

Birth Story Part 2

2009-08-27T07:26:00.005-05:00

So ... where did we leave off? Yes, in the middle of the c-section. There really isn't too much to tell at this point ... a lot of pulling, pushing, pressure, etc. And me and Chrissy and Ant were just kinda talking on the other side of the curtain. Suddenly the doctor said "Get ready!" and Chrissy and Anthony stood up to see their little girl being born. My sister immediately started to cry, and said "Oh my God, she's so beautiful! Thank you!" and sat down next to me crying and hugging me. I was crying, as was Anthony. I doubt there was a dry eye in the room.

Then just one minute later, the doctor again told them to stand up and look, and Anthony made is way out, feet first! Both babies were brought over to the warmers, cleaned up, and wrapped up in blankets. Sami was screaming her head off ... where Ant took a little longer to shout out, but soon enough he was letting his presence be known as well.

At this point, honestly, I was so spent, that it all kinda was a blur. I think I was just SO exhausted (having barely slept the night before) and it all finally hit me, since the birth was over and the babies were out. I just laid on the table as they closed me all up with my eyes closed, as Chrissy and Ant took a million pictures of the babies, held them, walked around with them, etc. It was a totally different experience than with my two, because after Boots and Moop were born, they were immediately taken to the NICU for 12 hours of observation. So I didn't even get to hold them in the operating room. Since Chrissy's babies were bigger and full term, they didn't rush them out. So we got to take lots of pics in the OR. At this point, they decided to let my husband in, so he came in to see me. Then Chrissy and Anthony left with the babies to go to the nursery, and me and my DH went to the recovery room.

This is when I started to notice that the nurses were concerned with my blood pressure. I could see it on the monitor, and it was like 160/90, which is really high for me. I was consistently 110/65 throughout my entire pregnancy. But I figured it was because I just gave birth. I didn't feel great, had a headache, my neck hurt, my back hurt, I was just uncomfortable. So I basically just closed my eyes and tried to relax best I could. I think I dozed off here and there.

About 2 hours later they moved me to my post-pardum room. It was AWESOME. It was private, HUGE, had a couch, recliner, flat screen tv, full table with 4 chairs, just a huge room. This was so great, because I delivered my twins at the same hospital, and ended up having to share a room, and it was the worst experience EVER. So I was so happy.

Once I was moved into my room, they gave me some pain killers and some blood pressure meds, and then everyone came in. My parents, DH, my brother, my sister and her husband and the babies, as well as my BIL's relatives. My sister also gave me my gift, a beautiful tennis bracelet as a thank you. Like I needed to be thanked anymore than she already has!

Besides having a headache and being tired, I was doing ok. And then my OB came in and said "Erica, you are pretty sick". That was kinda surprising, considering that I didn't feel bad. She told me that I had HELLP syndrome. I didn't know too much about it, but I knew it had to do with high blood pressure and something with the liver. They told me I needed to go on Magnesium Sulfate. And that I was going to be moved to the ICU. That is what scared me the most. ICU? Isn't that for people near death?? Yeah, that was pretty scary. So bye bye nice room, and off to the ICU. Luckily, they were able to find a room for my sister and her family to stay and visit with the babies. And me and my husband went up to the ICU.

I was only in the ICU for one night, thankfully. I was on the magnesium the whole time, and it just made me exhausted. I slept the whole time and just couldn't leave my eyes open. They came and took blood every few hours, and luckily all my levels were doing what they were supposed to be doing. The ones that needed to go up were rising, and the ones that needed to go down were lowering. So I was headed in the right direction, but my doctor did tell me that it could take a few weeks for everything to be back to normal.

So, I'll fast forward at this point. I went back to a regular post pardum room after one night in the ICU (not that great room I was in, but a private one, none the less!) They monitored me a little more closely than I guess the normal post pardum patient ... taking my blood pressure and blood more often to test everything, but everything was going well.

They finally set me free on the Saturday morning after giving birth. The babies left the same day that I did and went home with their mommy and daddy. It was nice that we were all able to leave the hospital together.

I did have one more scare after going home. The first night I was home, I woke up in the middle of the night with shortness of breath. It was worse when I was laying down, and I could hear this weird noise from my chest, almost like I had pop rocks in my chest, like a crackling. It scared me, so I called my OB to ask them about it, and he said I should go to the ER. So we called my mom to stay with the kids, and off I went! Ugh! We had a battery of tests, chest X-Ray, MRI, etc, and it turns out that I have fluid in my lungs from the HELLP. It actually looked like congenital heart failure, but it can happen to anyone who has recently had surgery, and it's a side effect of HELLP. So they gave me a diuretic to help me pee out a lot of the fluid, and told me it would work itself out.

It was definitely scary, and the whole thing was so unexpected. I mean, I carried twins before, and I have NO issues after they were born. So it kinda caught me off guard to deal with all of these issues after having this set of twins. But, most importantly, now 2.5 weeks later, the babies are healthy, I'm healthy, everyone is doing good, and that's really all I could ask for.

Thanks for reading all this if you made it through!!
Caba

The Birth Story - Part 1

2009-08-21T07:25:00.003-05:00

Ok ... so now down to the birth story.

My c-section was scheduled for 730am on Tuesday morning. Since we had to be at the hospital between 6am and 630am, my mom spent the night Monday to get up with the twins, get them ready for daycare, and drop them off.

I could NOT sleep the night before. I literally slept from 11pm-3am, and that was it. I just was so anxious, excited and nervous! So I basically just laid in bed and watched soaps on my DVR waiting for 5am. I figured I would get up at 5am, take a shower, blow dry my hair, and do some last minute getting everything together. The Baby Story people wanted us to tape leaving the house in the morning, saying goodbye to the kids, etc. So we wanted to leave a little bit of time for that.

So after getting ready, DH grabbed the camera and we started taping. I went into the kids room, and told them that we were going to the hospital. They started saying the cutest things ... like "the doctors are going to take Sami and Anthony out of mommy's belly!" We've been prepping them! haha. So we said our goodbyes, and DH and I got into the car. I taped myself talking on the way to the hospital, and we got there about 615am.

After going up to L&D, everything was really smooth. The nurse came right out, had all my paperwork ready, and put all my medical bracelets on. They brought me back to a L&D room, and I got undressed and laid down. At this point I was starting to get nervous. The nurse came in, asking lots of questions, and Chrissy and Ant showed up, as well as the Baby Story people. So suffice it to say, there were A LOT of people in the room. At this point, it was my DH, Chrissy and Ant, 3 Baby Story people, and 2 nurses. The nurse tried to do my IV, UGH! That might have been the worst part of the entire process. She had to stick me 2 times, and couldn't get it, so she had to call in another nurse who finally got it. That sucked. They put the babies on the monitors just to verify heartbeats and all that. Then my doc came in and did a quick ultrasound just to see the positions. I also found out that one of the other OBs that I really like in my practice was going to assist in the delivery. So I felt VERY special! Two docs for me!

They made me drink this awful stuff that tasted like sweet tarts with a salty aftertaste. That made me kinda nauseous. Once everyone was all dressed in scrubs and all that stuff, they walked me down to the operating room.

It was agreed that my sister and her husband would be in the operating room with me during the procedure, with my DH waiting outside. Once the babies were born, Chrissy and Ant would follow them to the nursery, and then my DH would come in and stay with me during the end of the procedure and to the recovery room. They also only allowed the camera man from a Baby Story in ... the other two people had to wait outside as well.

The brought me into the OR first, alone, to do the spinal. That wasn't as easy as I remember it being from last time. It hurt a little more, and took a little longer. But once it was done, I was fine. They got me all ready to go. And then I felt REALLY sick. I started dry heaving and vomitting, but it only last like a minute or two. As soon as the anesthesiologists saw that I was sick, he gave me some meds, and they kicked in pretty quickly. So luckily that passed by. They then brought it Chrissy and Ant to sit down by my head.

At this point, things moved pretty quickly in my opinion. They started the procedure, and there really isn't much to tell about that. I felt pressure, some tugging, etc, but it's not uncomfortable. It's just weird to think of what you know is going on on the other side of the curtain, but can't feel at all! The only thing that was gross was that when they first started, you could smell it. I think they use a laser or something to cut, and it smelled, like burning meat or something. Me and Chrissy and Ant all kinda looked at each other and were like "umm, gross!", but luckily the anesthesiologist put oxygen in my noise, so I didn't smell it anymore.

OK, this is WAY longer than I anticipated, so I'm going to have to break it up into parts. And this ends Part 1.

Enjoy,
Caba

They're HERE!!

2009-08-17T13:33:00.005-05:00

I'm sorry I've been so slow to post. I am going to post an entire birth story, but first and foremost I wanted to get some pictures up!!

I'm happy and proud to announce that Samantha Mary was born on August 11th at 825am weighing in at 6.2 lbs and 19 3/4 inches long. She came out first, screaming her lungs out! It was a wonderful beautiful sound!

Anthony Mark was born one minute later, at 826am, weighing in at a whopping 6.12 lbs and measuring 19 inches long. He took a moment to shout, but once he did, he let us know he was there!

Both babies are beautiful, healthy and required NO NICU time!! Yeah!!

I didn't fair quite as well, had a few issues after delivery, but I'll save that for the full birth story post ...

But, without further ado, PICTURES! There are lots more pics if you click on any of these pics and look at my shutterfly album ... I'm having a hard time picking just a few to display! They are all so cute!

Here is my sister's beautiful family! My sister is holding little Anthony, and Anthony is holding Sami.

The twins are fighting already! Although I prefer to think that Anthony was shielding Sami from the paparazzi!

Anthony all wrapped up and not looking happy about it!

Sami just peering out with one eye!

My twins meeting the new twins!

All dressed up and leaving the hospital.

And birth story to come, I promise!
Enjoy,
Caba

Just a Quickie

2009-08-10T20:44:00.003-05:00

So, tomorrow is the day. C-section is scheduled for 7:30am. I'm not sure what the status of wireless is at my hospital, but I'm hoping that I can get online, post an update, and get some pics up here for you all to see!

Thanks for all the support along the way. It's really been awesome! I will update you all as soon as I can!

Caba

Hi guys ...

2009-08-02T19:21:00.007-05:00

I'm still here! No babies yet! I'm 37w1d today, and still hanging in there! I had an ultrasound on Wednesday, and the babies are estimating in at 6.1 lbs and 6.8 lbs. Then I had an OB appt, and my cervix is completely closed. No dilation or anything! So that's a really good thing! My OB seems to think that I will make it to my scheduled c-section on Aug 11th. I actually think I might too!

Things have been getting a little tough over here. I'm really tired, I'm getting more and more uncomfortable, and I just can't move well. If I stand or walk around for any extended period of time I just get EXHAUSTED. Thankfully, my sister is like an angel, and has been over all the time, helping to take care of the kids. And every single weekend they go to her house and my mom's house for a night. So this weekend my sister and her husband picked them up at like 10am Saturday morning, and brought them back around 5pm tonight. It's so nice for us, because it gives us one night/morning every week where we know we can relax and then sleep in. Plus, we've gone to the movie every single week. This week was Funny People. I liked it.

It's amazing that I've made it further in this pregnancy than I did with my twins. Boots and the Moop were born at 36w3d. And by 36w I was dilated 1-2 centimeters. So I'm excited about how well I am doing ... I can't believe it!

Since I feel like I've been ignoring my kids a lot on this blog lately, I will offer up some pictures! All pics are links to shutterfly with more pics ...

Here are some pics from when my sister took the twins to a
local zoo near our house.

Here is Mr Moop playing in the kiddie pool at my mom's house.

And Boots wearing a fancy hat!

Here are Boots and the Moop at the beach ... We took a trip July 4th weekend and they LOVED playing in the sand!

Here are some pictures from a visit with my husband's family. We went down to visit his sister, and Moops and Boots cousin's Brandon and Allie. His parents came by too, so Grammy and Grandpa were there, as well as DH's cousin's wife, and her daughter Gracyn. All the kids had a blast playing in the kiddie pool!

My fabulous sister and her husband bought bikes for the twins. They are the cutest things ever. Moops is a CARS bike, and Boots is a Princess one. They even having matching helmets and knee pads! Look how cute!

And lastly a few pics I snapped randomly when the kids were laying around watching Dora.

Enjoy,
Caba

I suck

2009-07-16T18:51:00.003-05:00

I know ... it's been a month. That's a long time. The good news is, no babies yet! So I'm doing good, going to be 35 weeks this weekend, and everything is looking good with us! We have a scheduled c-section date of Tues Aug 11th. I will be 38w3d then. Pretty exciting! We were hoping to schedule it for Aug 10th (which is my DH's birthday) but the Dr we wanted wasn't on that day. And the one that was on refused to be on camera. So we pushed it a day.

I can't remember if I talked about it on here or not, but they are doing an episode of "A Baby Story" on us. We actually taped all the pre-birth stuff last Friday. It was fun, and kinda awkward and weird ... but I can't wait to see it!! Unfortunately Boots and the Moop were both sick ... so they weren't in the best of moods for their tv debut! I will definitely keep everyone posted about when it will be on tv.

My last day of work was June 26th, so I've been enjoying my maternity leave. Trying to relax as much as I can. But the kids have been sick a lot, so they've been home more than I would have liked. But luckily my sister is around, so she would come over and hang with the sick kid so I could still relax.

Luckily, everyone is healthy now, and back at daycare, and I'm enjoying just laying around and reading/watching tv/surfing the net.

I got nothing else for ya. I'm too lazy to put any pics up right now. I do have some cute ones of the kids, so next time I will. And I won't wait until the birth of these kids to post again!!

Enjoy,
Caba

Summer fun

2009-06-17T18:17:00.004-05:00

These pics are about a month old ... but I figure its time to get them up! It's completely misleading, giving that right now in NJ it's miserable, non-stop rainy, and cold! Well, about 65 degrees, which I think is freakin' cold for June!!

But we did have a few really nice days ... and the kids enjoyed playing outside in their sprinkler and pool. As you can see in the background of the pics, all the adults enjoyed a nice beer sitting outside in the nice weather, except me. Who was pounding my water like I know I need to do. But god, water kinda sucks after a while. I would give anything for a nice ice cold beer and some sushi!!!

Here is Boots having a blast in the pool. She would not take off her sunglasses!

Here is Mr Moop smiling up a storm. He wouldn't take off his shirt for some reason!

And here are a few "having fun in the pool" shots! I love the last one where they were like hugging!

We also just got their school pictures back that we ordered. A little back story ... daycare sent home a reminder on Friday that picture day was Monday. My sister had picked up the kids from daycare on Friday, and forgot to grab their daily sheets ... so we didn't know it was picture day. We sent them into school in messy clothes and looking disheveled!

My angel of a husband went home and got them outfits and brought them back to school so that they wouldn't be the sloppiest kids in the class for their pictures! But the daycare teachers didn't do the best job with their hair! Moops is supposed to be combed to the side (and this was before his 2nd haircut, so his hair was still kinda long!) ... We asked the teacher to put Boots hair in pig tails, but they didn't do as good a job as I do!! Anyway, for your enjoyment!

Sweet Lady Boots

Cute Mr Moop

My two Angels together

Enjoy,
Caba

Baby Shower

2009-06-11T18:56:00.004-05:00

So, I'm a bit late with this post. I've been lazy this week, and I've meant to post, and I just never get around to it. I know, I stink.

We had my sister's baby shower this past weekend. It was SO nice. It wasn't a surprise or anything, she knew about it. But it was such a wonderful celebration. All our friends and family there to support her and her husband and these new babies. In a way, it felt like a celebration of everything she has gone through in the past year ... the cancer diagnosis, the surgery, the treatment, the surrogacy cycle, everything. And here we are, almost a year exactly from when you got her diagnosis ... and she went from finding out she had cancer and that she would never be able to carry a baby, to being cancer free, treatment free, and expecting twins in about 2 months!!

Here is me and my beautiful sister!

And with both the parents, my sister and Brother In Law!

And all the loot she got!

For lots more pics, click on any of the ones above to go check out tons others on Shutterfly.

The shower was so wonderful, and very emotional ... my sister got up and spoke and pretty much made the entire room cry! It was a beautiful shower and a wonderful experience and I'm so glad it went off so well ... my mom and I put a lot of thought into it, and I think it came across!

Now we just need these babes to get here so that they can enjoy all the stuff they got! But not for another 7 weeks or so please!

Enjoy,
Caba

Random Cuteness and my first L&D visit

2009-06-01T18:42:00.007-05:00

I'll start with the L&D visit. Last Thursday I was working from home and wasn't feeling great. I was very crampy and achy in my lower abdomen. So remembering my other twin pregnancy, I dutifully layed down on my left side, and started downing my water. Unfortunately, about an hour went by, and I didn't feel much better. So I continued to lay, and I continued to drink. Another hour goes by, nothing's changed. So I decided to call my OB's office. I talked with a nurse there, and she consulted with one of the docs, and they agreed that I should take a trip to Labor and Delivery to get checked out.

Luckily my sister was on her way over to help with the twins that night, so she picked me up and off to the hospital we went. We basically just spent a bunch of time in the PET unti (pre-natal evaluation and testing). They checked on the babes, who were very active and the heartbeats were perfect. They then put a contraction monitor on me and told me they would monitor for contractions for a half hour. One half hour later, the doc came in. Not a single contraction. Cervix long and closed. Bottom line, the doc thinks the pain was round ligament pain. I'll take it! We would LOVE for these little bubs to spend another 10 weeks in my belly!

What else? My sister's shower is this weekend ... it's not a surprise (obviously, since I'm mentioning it here, and she reads this!) But I'm very excited and can't wait for it! She deserves her very special day in the spotlight!

And now I just want to share some super cute pics of the kids that I have taken over the last few weeks. These first few pics were from this play zone area by our house. DH and I took the kids there one weekend morning ... it was really fun! Lots of different play areas with slides and climby things ... and then different rooms to pretend-play different stuff, like a Vets office, a dress up area, a supermarket, a post office, etc. Then we had lunch there... the kids LOVED it!

Here is Boots going down the slide

And Moop going down the slide

Boots in the "supermarket"

Moop doing his shopping

Moop laughing at his sister

Boots being goofy

Moop chillin' and Boots wearing Daddy's shoes

And lastly, a picture I like to call "My Little Diva". Yes, she is wearing her sunglasses inside, while relaxing in her chair, getting a pedicure from Mommy. She loves her "painted pink toes" as she calls them.

Enjoy,
Caba

Fun Weekend!

2009-05-24T19:38:00.014-05:00

So, this weekend was the East Coast Gathering for Twinstuff.com. What a blast! Saturday we attended the picnic, which took place about 45 minutes from our house, and was a big pot luck where everyone brought something, and we ate, and talked, and the kids got to run around and play, and there were water balloons, and really, it was just a blast. My parents came with us, as an extra helping hand, so that made it a lot easier on me.

Here are a few pics from the picnic:
Here is Lady Boots all dressed up ready to get in the car to drive to the picnic.

Boots playing with bubbles at the picnic

Moop have bubbles blown in his face

Group picture from the TS East Coast Gathering

The kids are pooped!

For the 2nd day of the TS Gathering, we all met up at Sesame Place for a fun day! Some of families stayed overnight in a local hotel between the picnic site and Sesame Place, but we were close enough to go home, and it was easier on the kids. It was the first time we brought the kids to Sesame Place, and they LOVED it! They were so excited to see all the characters and got their pictures taken with Bert and Ernie, and Cookie Monster and Telly. There weren't any big hugs given, they were a bit too nervous for that, but lots of high fives!

They loved the water rides, and Boots loved some of the little kid rides ... Mr Moop, on the other hand, was very nervous about the rides! He didn't want to go on anything that went up in the air. But there was a cool bouncy thing they loved, and they loved the new Counts Water World! The funniest thing was that I rented one of those electric motorized carts just incase I got really tired, I didn't want to walk around too much. haha. The kids wanted to ride with me ... and Moop really wanted to press the controls!

Here are the some pics from Sesame Place! There are a ton of pics if you click over to shutterfly from any of the pictures.
Here is Mr Moop and Opa on the carousel. He doesn't like the horses, just the bench! Boots, on the other hand, enjoyed riding on a hours with Grandma close by!

Here is Boots with Aunt Chrissy on an Elmo ride. She loved it!

Here is Moop with Daddy on the Elmo ride. He was VERY nervous about it!

Here are the twins in this fun bouncy area with big cushins that they loved. We had to drag them outta there!

Here is Mr Moop going down the water slide to Uncle Mark while Boots and Daddy are waiting for her turn!

And Boots' turn!

Here's Boots, Aunt Chrissy, Ernie, Bert, Moop and Daddy!

Here's Telly, Boots, Uncle Ant, Cookie Monster, Moop and Daddy!

Here's Moop and Boots chillin' in their wagon, waiting for the parade to start! Notice everyone is wearning their Twinstuff Purple Shirts! We all had them on to commemorate the day!

Here are Zoe and Elmo in the parade! The kids LOVE them!

They had a great time. So did we! We tried to forego naps, but that was not successful ... Moop actually feel asleep sitting up in his wagon around 3pm, so we decided it was time to go ... they slept most of the way home, but were royal pains in the butt the rest of the night. Oh well, it was all well worth it!

So, for any twin moms reading, or any newly pregnant twin moms, may I suggest heading over to Twinstuff.com? It's a great resource, regardless of the age of your children. And if you live close enough to the East Coast, you can join us for this weekend next year!

Enjoy,
Caba

IComLeavWe and Thoughts on Surrogacy

2009-05-21T09:40:00.004-05:00

Hey ... I haven't done ICLW for a while, so I figured I would jump in again this month! Here's what it means (from Stirrup Queens): ICLW stands for International Comment Leaving Week, but if you say it aloud, doesn't it sounds like "I come; [but] leave [as a] we"? And that's sort of the point. Blogging is a conversation and comments should be honoured and encouraged. I like to say that comments are the new hug--a way of saying hello, giving comfort, leaving congratulations."

So, welcome to my blog, any new readers that have come for ICLW! A quick history of me ... I have 2 year old b/g twins born on April 5th, 2007, the beautiful products of love and IVF/ICSI. They are the light of my life, and the beloved thorns in my side!

I am also currently the gestational carrier of b/g twins for my amazing wonderful sister and her husband. My sister was diagnosed last summer with breast cancer, and just ended all her treatments! The twins are due Aug 22nd. We are super excited about their arrival, and I am honored to have been giving the opportunity to help make their dreams of having a family come true!

*******************************************************************************

Now, on the to the non-ICLW stuff. I've been thinking so much lately about this whole surrogacy thing. What an amazing journey it's been. It's been WAY harder than I anticipated ... probably because my only experience in pregnancy was WITHOUT any other children at home, so I think I anticipated it being easier than it is. It certainly does not help that my kids are fully engaged in the terrible twos, trying to kill each other, kill me, kill my husband, kill themselves, and kill any stuffed animals, toys, or books within their reach.

But on the days when I'm tired, or uncomfortable, I think about what it all means. Sometimes this whole situation just floors me! I am carrying my niece and nephew. Is there anyway that I could be closer to these kids? I am just so honored that I get to play this role in their lives. They are going to be blessed beyond belief with two parents that I personally believe are two of the most amazing people in the world.

Ya know, you hear a lot of crap in the media about surrogacy. And me and my sister joke that it's outsourcing at it's finest, and how she will look thin at her shower, and she can drink at her shower, and blah blah blah. But I would give anything to put these babies in her belly. And I'm guessing that every single mom who used a surrogate would have preferred to carry the babies herself. So I get so pissed when people talk about all the money that "these IPs (intended parents)" spend so that the mom doesn't have to get fat or get streth marks. I honestly never thought much about surrogacy before we were in this situation. Not that I ever had a problem with it, I think people should use whatever means they can to create the family they want. But it just wasn't something I thought would touch my life. I guess most of us don't think much about it when we start trying to get pregnant. Surrogacy just seems so far down the IF road ... ya know, maybe you try a little Chlomid. Move to IUI, and then IVI. But surrogacy? That's SO far away.

And then it wasn't. It was the ONLY option. And it's such a wonderful one. Maybe surrogates will disagree with me, and that's their right, but to me, the REAL heros in this journey are the IMs (intended moms). The women who give up the dream of carrying their baby so that they can HAVE a baby. I don't mean to take anything away from the Dads, they rock too, but they NEVER expected to carry a pregnancy. But the moms, well, we all DO expect to carry our babies. And to give it up, to put your trust in another person, with THE single most important thing in your life, well, that takes guts. And faith. And complete trust. Sure, the surrogate might deal with more of the day to day aches and pains, the physical ailments, but I don't think it can come close to what an IM deals with.

So, I would like to honor all your IMs today. YOU are my heros. You, who have given up so much, to gain so much. My sister, who is one of the strongest, most beautiful, most amazing women I know. Who faced her cancer treatment head on, with such a strong positive outlook. If only she could see herself as the same women that I see. My sister, who is going to be the most amazing mom to these two precious babies.

I think in this journey, too much focus has been put on me, and what a wonderful thing I've done, but really, I'm just being a sister. Not enough focus is put on what the IM has give up, what faith she has to hold on to, what trust she has to find, and what strength this entire journey takes. Surrogates are awesome, but it's the IMs that are getting my pat on the back today. You ladies are my heros. My sister is my hero.

Caba

Crazy 8's: I've been tagged ...

2009-05-17T19:02:00.002-05:00

I've been tagged by FET Accompli! I love doing these things!

Rules: Mention the person that tagged you.
Complete the lists of 8’s.
Tag 8 blogger friends, go tell them you tagged them…

8 Things I Am Looking Forward To:
1. Next week, when I start working from home 3 days a week!
2. Full Maternity leave so I can take a break from work
3. Giving birth to my sister's babies
4. Seeing the look on my sister and her husband's faces the first time they see their twins.
5. Enjoying being a new Aunt.
6. Warm weather
7. Vacationing in Aruba sans kids with my wonderful husband
8. Raising my kids with my sister raising hers, and enjoying the joys of twins together.

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1. Slept in!
2. Spent too much time on Twinstuff.com
3. Went out for lunch with my husband for yummy Italian food.
4. Went to Toys R Us to buy a birthday gift, and got 2 puzzles for the twins.
5. Went to a birthday party for my cousin's 6 year old son
6. Gave the munchkins baths.
7. Caught up on tv shows with my husband
8. Fell asleep promptly after eating 3 cookies.

8 Things I Wish I Could Do
1. Have enough time to read all the amazing books I want to read
2. Find a cure for all kinds of cancers and other diseases (I'm keeping this the same as Fet Accompli's, cause I just gotta agree)
3. Move my friend Anne out of her country, and bring her here to the US to live next door to me.
4. Take care of all of the financial worries of my family
5. Gather up all my favorite Atheists (Love you AAA girls) and go on a much needed and much deserved trip together.
6. Make my sister's hair grow back in like 2 days, completely and fully. Cause I know how much she hates not having it.
7. Let my husband know just how appreciative I am of all that he does, and how much I love him. I try to tell him, but sometimes I feel like it's just not enough.
8. Ensure that my children are always happy.

8 Shows I Watch (For anyone who knows me, how the heck am I going to come up with only 8???
1. Survivor
2. Lost
3. The Office
4. 30 Rock
5. America's Next Top Model
6. Ghost Whisperer
7. Hell's Kitchen
8. American Idol

8 Favorite Fruits
1. Oranges
2. Strawberries
3. Raspberries
4. Banana
5. Grapes
6. Watermelon
7. Pineapple
8. Apples

8 Places I’d Like to Travel
1. Greece
2. Italy (I had to leave too early!)
3. New Zealand
4. Mexico
5. Fiji
6. Scotland
7. Maine
8. Canada

8 Places I’ve Lived
1. New Jersey
2. Pennsylvania
3. Umm, my parent's house?
4. College dorm
5. In a dream... I love my life, and sometimes I have to pinch myself to know it's actually this great.
6. Umm, I'm out of answers.
7. I guess I need to move to another place...
8. Oh, how about the state of confusion??

8 People I've Tagged
This is where I get lazy ... anybody who reads, go to town! Let me know if you do it so I can read along!

Thanks for reading!
Caba

I am sick of being sick

2009-05-12T19:20:00.004-05:00

So much has happened since I last wrote. Boots and Moop had their first "performance" last Wednesday. Their daycare did a spring concert, and for the first time, their classroom (ages 2-2.5) was invited to participate. It was previously only the older kids.

It was super cute! They all marched on stage, and sang 3 songs. Boots had her back to the audience the whole time, as she was facing her teacher. Moop stood towards the back, but was dancing around and singing along! I was so proud. The pregnancy hormones had me all choked up!

Unfortunately, on that same night, I started to get sick. AGAIN. Another cold. Ok, not fun, but I can deal. Friday night, my wonderful sister/BIL and parents took the kids again. They take them all out to eat, and then they each take one for the night. As the night dragged on, I was SO tired, getting really stuffy, and just more miserable. I woke up Saturday morning still stuffy, but ok. DH got us some Dunkin' Donuts and we sat in bed to relax. I started to feel slightly nauseous. I took a shower and asked DH to make me an english muffin and an egg so that I could eat something not too heavy.

About 5 bites in I was running to the bathroom and throwing it all up. Ugh, looks like a stomach bug on top of a horrible cold. My family was going to bring the kids back to us around dinner time, but being the rock stars that they are, they kept them for another night so I could vomit in peace.

Ugh, I felt SO awful. I was just wrecked. It was one of those things where I couldn't even lift my head off the pillow. Luckily, I felt a little better on Mother's Day morning. DH gave me a beautiful card that made me cry, as well as got me tickets to see Hair on Broadway! Love that man. After resting all day, I decided to venture up to my sister's for a Mother's Day BBQ. I didn't eat much, but I wanted to spend a little time with my kids on Mother's Day. But when I got home, I threw up again. Lovely.

I did go to work on Monday, I felt ok in the morning and figured I would give it a shot going in. I also talked to my boss about my needing to slow things down a little. Starting next week (I'll be 26w2d) I will be working from home 3 days a week and going into the office 2 days a week. Then we will see how I do with this schedule. If I need to start working from home full time, they will be flexible with that. Either way, unless something happens that the doc pulls me out sooner, my last day of work will be June 26th. I'll be 32 weeks. Can't get here soon enough!!

Oh, and some WONDERFUL news! My sister had her final radiation treatment on Monday, and will be having her port removed tomorrow. So cancer treatment is OVER!!! I am so happy for her ... and now she can focus on these two little bubs that are about to take over her world!!

Pictures next time, I promise!
Enjoy,
Caba

Viability and a day at the park

2009-05-02T14:26:00.006-05:00

So, I'm 24 weeks today. That marks viability, or so they say. I'm happy to meet the first of what I hope are many more milestones. I intend to stay pregnant for a much longer time though!

Not too much going on to talk about. I'm sorry I've been slacking with the updates. The kids are so great. They are just getting so big, and look so old to me. I can't take it! I saw my friends 5 week old, 8.5 lb baby, and all I kept thinking was "Wow. That's a small baby." And then I realized that both of mine were WAY smaller than that ... Boots left the hospital at less than 5 lbs! And yet, here I was, all awkward holding my friends baby. haha. I guess I've blocked out that time!

So, Moop still takes a binky. He loves it. He uses it for naps (on the weekends, not at daycare) and when he goes to bed at night. Boots doesn't care as much, but if Moop has one, she requests one. So I think it's time to get rid of them. I was going to wait until Christmas, and have them leave them for Santa ... but I think instead we are prepping them to give the binkies to Aunt Chrissy's babies. We've already started talking to them about it, and they are totally receptive. So now, if I ask them "Who are you going to give your binkies to?", Boots will answer "Sami!" and Moop will answer "Anthony!". And then I say "Does Moop need a binky anymore?" and he'll smile and say "Noooooo."

So I think our plan is once I give birth, DH will make a big game of gathering up all the binkies with the kids, bring them to the hospital, and then handing them off to the babies. At the same time, we will have a gift from the babies to Moop and Boots as a thank you for all the binkies. I really really hope it works!!

Besides that, we enjoyed a super nice weekend last weekend. We went to the park, but not before taking Moop for another hair cut. But this time, we went WAY short. Check out the new 'do.

The kids had fun at the park, playing on the slide, and blowing bubbles. But once they saw me drinking out of my water bottle, they vetoed their sippy cups, and only wanted to drink out of water bottles. So cute!

We had a lot of fun, and then we topped off the evening with a trip to Stewart's where they enjoyed hot dogs and fries (oh yeah, and we did too!)

I promise, I will try and update more!
Enjoy,
Caba

Easter Pics and Pregnancy Update

2009-04-15T19:13:00.003-05:00

So, since I bailed on giving you pics last time, I figured I would put up pics from Easter now. Can you believe how big these kids are? They certainly don't look like two year old! Here they are dressed in their Easter Best.

Here's Boots with her bunny ears on after searching for eggs in the morning. She was pounding the jelly beans ... little piggie. And Mr Moop smiling, sporting his ears.

There isn't too much going on over here. Everyone is healthy (knock on wood) and I really hope it stays that way.

I'm feeling ... tired. Really really tired. This pregnancy is starting to take a toll on me. I'm not sleeping well, I wake up multiple times at night, and I've been waking up WAY too often at 4am for good. Then going to work all day. Then coming home and having to deal with the kids. Let's just say I've had better days. I feel like maybe I felt better this far along in my first pregnancy. I'm sure that had to do with the fact that I didn't have two little demons to chase around.

I feel SO tired after work ends... like I could go home and sleep for hours. And then I am jealous that that is actually what I did when I was pregnant with my twins. I did NOTHING all the time. Oh well, it is what it is. I knew what I was signing up for. And it's an inconvenience, but a very temporary one. Hey, I'm pregnant, I'm allowed to bitch.

Enjoy,
Caba

Happy ZJD!

2009-04-12T19:35:00.004-05:00

There will be no pictures in this post, because I am too tired. But basically, an update is due. We had the week from hell. Monday, my DH calls me at work at like 330pm and says that daycare called him in the morning and said Boots scratched near her eye, and she was fine, but they just wanted to let her know. But then they called him after her nap and said it had gotten really red, was running a lot, and she was whining and saying "boo boo eye". So I left work to go check her out, and decided to bring her to the doctor. Unfortunately, it was like 4pm, and my doc couldn't see us till 815pm! And she was really crying and obviously in pain. So I was able to get her into a different office, immediately, but I had to go right over. And I was by myself, with both kids. So I rushed over to the doctor, and DH left work to meet me. In my rush there, I got pulled over. I immediately started crying because I was just SO stressed. The cop looked scared of me when he saw I was crying. He totally let me go, just told me to calm down and get to where I was going safely. Sure enough, she had a scratch on her eye. I needed to put drops in, and try and keep in covered. That eye patch lasted all of 10 minutes. And another excited turn of events was that she had an ear infection. Great. So, home we got.

Tuesday, DH woke up sick ... totally stomach bug, vomiting and all that fun stuff. GREEEAAAATTT! We were supposed to bring the kids to their 2 year drs appt that day. And being pregnant, I couldn't do it alone. So I called my sister and her husband went will me. He was home for the day because we had the big 20 week u/s that afternoon. So he came with me, and the kids did great. Everyone is getting big, Boots is pretty much in 50% for everything, and Moop was like 95%. They got one shot, and then we dropped them off at daycare. DH was feeling better, but pretty much sequestered himself in the spare room all day. The 20 week u/s went well, and then my sister stayed with me to help get the kids ready for bed and all that before leaving.

Wednesday - the calm before the storm.

Thursday, 6am. Boots wakes up, as happy as can be. We are hanging in my room, when she starts to gag, and I run her to the bathroom. She throws up bile. Wonderful. She caught what Daddy had. So I stay home from work with her. She threw up one more time during the day. Luckily, she rebounded pretty quickly. By that evening, she was fine.

Friday, 4am. Wake to hear Boots crying and Moop throwing up. His turn. He seemed to have it worse. He threw up multiple times during the day. We actually didn't let him have anything for the whole day except water.

Saturday. No vomit episodes over night. YEAH! Everything looked good all day. We colored eggs in the morning, and they loved it. Had a blast. Then, we had tickets to go see Elmo Live! that night. We were super excited to take them. They got up from their naps, we got them ready to go, and my parents came by. We were giving them an early dinner (around 4pm) because the show was from 530pm-7pm. As they were sitting in their high chairs, Moop throws up everywhere. I wanted to cry. He had just drank a TON of water, so everyone convinced me that he probably just drank too quickly, and his belly would still not right. DH gave him the quickest bath ever, while I packed up all our stuff, with plastic bags for vomiting and changes of clothes for Moop. I felt like a bad mom still taking him, but I would have hated for him to have missed it. I'm VERY happy to say that he was fine, and he LOVED the show. They both did ... We suck because we forgot the camera though ... So all the memories are in our heads only. But they did great, they had a blast and so did we.

Sunday. No more vomit. My parents and my in-laws came over for Easter (aka Zombie Jesus Day. Come on, don't be offended. It's FUNNY). We kept Moops meals pretty bland ... but everyone had much fun and lots of food and I'm so freaking tired. We do have pics from today, so I will post them at a later day.

I wonder how it is that in a house of sickies, the pregnant woman is the ONLY one to have not gotten sick. Watch me vomit tonight. I will be SO pissed.

Happy ZJD!
Caba

Two Years Old!

2009-04-06T19:45:00.005-05:00

Yes, you read it right ... my crazies are TWO! Yesterday was their second birthday, and we had there party as well. I must say, it was quite a hit! What started out as having immediate family only over for cake somehow morphed in renting a hall, having performers there, and like 30 adults and 16 kids! I don't know exactly how it happened!

It really was a good time, if not completely crazy! My wonderful amazing sister got these guys to come and perform. They were awesome! It was two guys, and for the first hour they played all kinds of songs, did Simon Says, pulled out a parachute, played with balloons, and then had this crazy gun like contraption that shot toilet paper all over the place ... it was crazy cool. Then one of the guys changed into an Elmo costume, and came out to do some dances with the kids, and take pictures with all of them. Then he changed back out of Elmo, and they made balloon animals and did face painting. It was SO great.

All the kids seemed to really enjoy it .. and no meltdowns! No one being scared of Elmo, no crying! It was amazing! The twins were really excited about Elmo, and Jake ran up and gave him a big hug!

Here are some pics ... there are a million more! If you click on any of the pics it will take you to Shutterfly to see them all.

Here is the hall we rented we some Elmo decorations

Here is me, DH and Boots. Mr Moop refused to be in the pic with us!

Here is Grandma and Boots. Boots was VERY excited to wear her tutu to her party. She was talking about it for a week beforehand.

Mr Moop is on the move! He's having fun!

Elmo with all the kids.

Elmo with the twins and Aunt Chrissy.

The AWESOME Elmo cake ...

It really was a great time! The kids enjoyed it SO much ... I'm pretty beat though. It takes a lot out of the parents to throw a party! But, in the end, it was SO worth it ...

I just can't believe I have two year olds ... it blows my mind every single day.

Enjoy,
Caba

The Post I've Been Dreading ...

2009-03-24T19:34:00.012-05:00

Well, here it is. The post I've been dreading. I knew this day would come. But I didn't want to have to write it. I knew I would be sad. I knew it would be irreversible. And yet, we still did it. And there is no turning back.

Here is a picture of the sweetest boy you will ever see. My Moop. I love him so much. He is a little angel, and totally a momma's boy. Isn't he gorgeous? Look at that head of hair of his! That thick hair and those beautiful curls, what's not to love, right? Here he is ... just a few minutes before ... the incident.

AND ... HERE HE IS ... DURING ... THE INCIDENT ....

And of course, after it was all over.

He looks cute, right??? RIGHT???? I'm still sad ... but his hair was getting SO long ... and he was always getting annoyed with it in his face ... and with the summer coming, I think it would have been such a hassle. He looks so old now though ...

Mommy is still trying to adjust to the change ... tell me I didn't make a mistake by cutting it ... please???? For what it's worth, he seems to like it.

Caba

Hi all ...

2009-03-16T19:25:00.008-05:00

I don't have too much to say ... but wanted to check in. I'm about 17 1/2 weeks ... how crazy is that? I'm feeling a lot better ... the morning sickness is gone finally. I'm still pretty tired, but that's about the extent of it. So I'm enjoying what I consider the "honeymoon" phase right now.

My kids are still insane and driving me crazy. They just moved up into the next classroom at school ... and in this room they start potty training them! Wow. The teacher already said that Boots is the potty training champ. She always is willing to sit down on the potty and try. Moop is willing to try too, but she said it's a little bit more of a fight to get him into the bathroom. No worries though, and no pressure. They will get there when they get there.

I can't believe they are going to be 2 in 3 weeks! OMG! Where the heck has the time gone??? They are just having an explosion of words and thoughts ... and they are like two little parrots. The just mimic EVERYTHING we say. Which is great, as well as somewhat annoying. hehe.

The original plan was for us to do a really low-key, immediate family only parent at our house, just cake, and thats it. Then my sister offered up her house, she has a big finished basement, so that we could extend to party to our cousins and their children as well. Well, my sister ended up selling her house in about 5 minutes, and is moving out by the end of March. And being that the party is scheduled for April 5th, we needed to find a new place. So we are doing it at a local VFW, but here's the kicker. My super wonderful sister has gotten them the coolest present. Two guys are coming to the party, one dresses up like Elmo, and you can take pics with him, and all kinds of stuff. And then they do face painting and balloon animals and all kinds of musical games. I hope the kids love it and don't cry. But honestly, it could go either way.

And at last, here are two super cute pics of the kids!

Enjoy,
Caba

An update of my kids ...

2009-03-02T20:12:00.008-05:00

I know, it's been a while. It's also been a post I've had a hard time writing. I mean, do you really want to write a post that everyone in your family, all your friends, and your blog friends will read that starts with "I can't take my kids anymore". Yeah, that's the post you are about to get. But fret not! It comes with pictures!

The twins are going to be 23 months this Thursday. Yes, one month shy of their 2nd birthday. I believe the terrible twos have started. If they haven't, kill me now. Because I can't have it get worse than this. I seriously can't.

I love my kids to pieces, to the end of the world and back. I truly do. So please don't mistake my bitching for anything other than that. And screw it, I'm pregnant with twins, I can bitch if I want to!

They are driving me and DH UP THE WALL! It's constant NO!. It's constant whining. It's constant fighting. It's constant pushing boundaries. They hit each other. They hit me. They laugh while they do it. They fully understand when I tell them not to do something. And then they proceed to do it anyway. They are Satan's spawn. Ok, maybe that last one was a little mellow dramatic.

I know it's normal. Those of you with singletons probably don't see it, and maybe don't get it. This is something that is very different with twins. Although a singleton may do a lot of the things I mentioned, there isn't the constant battle with their same aged sibling. Even if you have two kids, one is older, and probably understands better, so there is someone to reason with. I can't reason with anyone. Not even myself most days. If you just have one, there is no one that is invading your childs personal space 24/7. They might throw a tantrum, or throw a toy. But they aren't running up to their twin and smashing them in the head with the stupid jukebox from the play diner. Yes, this is my life. It's challenging, a lot of the time. They try my patience endlessly, and let me tell you guys, there wasn't a lot of patience to begin with.

Ahhhhh, I feel better to have just vented that all out. But now, onto the cute stuff!

Boots is really turning into quite the lover. She is a Daddy's girl like no one's business. She will even say if I try to pick her up "No, No Mommy! Daddy up!" She is like an appendage to him. But now, if I pretend to cry, she runs over to me, gives me a big hug, and then kisses me firmly on the lips and says "No cryin' mommmy". Let's just say it melts my heart, and makes me pretend to cry like a million times a day. She is SUPER vocal and repeats pretty much every single thing either of us says, which makes for some fun. We may or may not have had her repeating curse words. I won't confirm or deny this. She is getting really good at sharing with Mr Moop, and saying sorry when she hurts him. Oh, it's doesn't stop her from hurting him first, but she always says I'm sorry afterwards. It's a start, I suppose. She's the prettiest thing ever, and she is so much my personality that at times it scares me. The teenage years are going to be a fucking nightmare. Yes, I had to drop the f-bomb, because I really feel that's how insane it is going to be. When I ask her "Where are Chrissy's babies?" she rubs my belly and says hi to them. She is even learning their names (which I'm not putting here yet, as they are my sister's to share with the world). But it's really cute to hear her say them. She refuses to sit on her highchair during her meals and will scream "SIT DADDY!" until DH takes her out of the highchair and puts her in his lap. Then she will happily smile away and eat her meal. Although we haven't started potty training, she is interested in her potty, and every night before her bath, she will take off her own diaper and sit on the potty and pee. So I'm hoping she will be the easier of the two to train. Oh, and she has started stripping down in her crib in the morning. A couple days in a row, DH found her start naked sitting in her crib. So, we have started duct taping her diaper so she can't get it off. Ah, the many uses of duct tape.

Moop, on the other hand, is as crazy as the day is long! He's so happy all the time it's almost verging on insanity. He's always got a goofy grin on his face, and he's my little buddy. Just like his sister won't leave Daddy, he's a Mommy's boy. And no, I'm not hating it at all. His hair is still long and completely out of control and I can't help but love it. He is full of loves and hugs and kisses, and is always up for a cuddle. I LOVE that. He is a counting genius (or so I think) and he can count up to 13. I'm not sure why that number, but hey, so far, so good. He knows all his colors too, and his favorite is blue. He yells it everytime I point to something blue and over annunciates it. "Moop, what color is this?" ... "BBBBAAAAAAAAALLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO". He's insane. He loves books, and he loves to read, and at any time we can leave him alone in a room, and come back like 10 minutes later, and he will be sitting perfectly, in the recliner, flipping through a book. He's just so EASY. DH and I laugh that if they hadn't come as a package deal, and Moop came first, we would have had another for sure. If Boots had come first, she would have been an only child. He's so much my husband's personality. He's sweet, easy going, and just happy. He sleeps SO WELL! He goes down right at 7pm without a peep ... and usually doesn't wake until 7am, if not later. But what's even crazier is that he doesn't cry or make noise when he gets up. He just sits in his crib and grabs one of his books or toys, and plays silently. That's how we always find him after nap time.

Ok Ok, so some pics. Here are a few of my recent favorites. Boots is loving having a pony tail, but then Moop wants one too! Here is the proof ...

Here is the Boots wearing Daddy's hat around and Moop dancing...

And here is the picture I need to refer back to when I'm having one of those days where I want to sell them. Because really, they are perfectly beautiful and I love them to death!

Enjoy,
Caba

My Interview

2009-02-23T19:54:00.003-05:00

So, I'm as slow as always, but I was interviewed by Stacie over at Heeeeere Storkey, Storkey! Since I'm such a sucky blogger as of late, I'm not going to put the directions up on my blog, which would allow me to interview you, as I know I would never get around to it!

So, here are the questions I received from the lovely Stacie.

1. I know you were friends with your husband for a long while before you got married, so I was wondering about those early days. How did you and your husband meet, and who was ready to move on to dating first--him or you?
Ah, the love story of me and DH. It's SUCH a good one. I met my husband during our first Calculus class, freshman year of college. He had met one of the girls who lived on my floor, so she introduced us. Then we proceeded to have almost every single class together because we were both computer science majors (aka Dorks). I think we both had a slight crush on each other very quickly, but I had a boyfriend back home. Not that that stopped me. Yeah, I cheated on my boyfriend with my DH, but ended up ending things with DH after about a month or two. From that point on, we became the best of friends, and didn't rekindle our romance until like 8 years late. And by that time, I was persuing him. Don't get me wrong, I knew he wanted me ... hehe. He just didn't know yet, so I had to remind him of how great I was. He remembered.

2. You have an adorable set of twins. Do you and your husband plan on having any more children?
Ya know, this question lead to a long discussion between me and DH. Obviously we have no immediate plans since I'm pregnant with someone elses babies, but I'm not sure I even know the answer to this. Right now, my kids are driving me up the wall, so I want to say no. But there is a teeny tiny part of me that would maybe want another. But then I think about IVF. And how my company now does offer coverage, but only 10K lifetime max. So maybe that's one cycle. And if that cycle fails, we would have to start paying out of pocket. And say we do that cycle, how many do we put back in? I put in two with my twins, and ended up with twins. We put in 4 with my sister, and originally ended up with triplets. I CAN NOT have another set of twins, but I don't know if I could just transfer 1 in! There is so much to think about when you are dealing with infertility. So the short answer is, we don't know. I would say right now that we are probably done, but never say never.

3. Raising twins (and being pregnant!) is hard work. What is your favorite way to relax after a stressful day?
Is smoke pot an acceptable answer? Nah, I'm teasing. Right now, all I want to do is lay in bed and watch tv. It's not exciting, but it's true. Every day seems to be stressful. Between working full time, raising the kids, being pregnant, etc. All I want to do is sleep. I love sleep.

4. Speaking of being pregnant, it is amazing that you were carrying triplets and now twins for you sister and brother-in-law. Could you tell about some of the joys and/or concerns you've experienced on this journey?
This journey is amazing. I can't even put into words how honored I feel that my sister trusts me with something so important. I see my sister and her husband with my kids, and they are AMAZING. They are going to make the best parents, and I feel lucky to be able to help bring their dreams to reality. As for the concerns, I think I was most worried about my DH. I call him the "unsung hero" of this journey. I feel like I'm getting a lot of the recognition for being such a "great sister", but my DH is doing all the work! He's the one who gets up with the kids EVERY SINGLE DAY to let me sleep. He gets them ready in the morning and off to daycare. He picks them up from daycare. He makes dinner, he gets them ready for bed. I haven't changed a diaper in ages. He is just doing everything, and I was worried about how this would affect him. But, as usual, he rises above it all. He constantly tells me how much it's worth it, how much he loves my sis and her husband, and how excited he is for them. He is really the more selfless one of the two of us.

5. If you could go anywhere in the world (money not an issue), where would it be and why?
Well, there are a lot of places I would love to go that I haven't been yet, like Greece, Fiji and Venice. But I loved Hawaii, Ireland and Germany. So if money is no object, them I'm going to all of those places! Since I haven't been to the first three, I have no real reason for wanting to go except that I heard they are all beautiful. I went to Hawaii on my honeymoon and loved it, so I would love to go back. DH and I went with our best friends to Ireland, and he told me he loved me for the first time in this castle! And Germany I went with my parents and husband a few years ago, my Dad was born and raised there, and it was a beautiful country that I would love to see again!

Hope you enjoyed my answers!
Caba

Some Bittersweet News ...

2009-02-12T20:02:00.002-05:00

So, it's been a while again. Mostly because I'm tired, sick, and just don't have all that much to say. Until today.

So, we had a Drs appt today. Unfortunately, one of the trips is no longer with us. There was no heartbeat. The baby was measuring about a week behind, so whatever happened, happened sometime last week. Of course, my sister is sad, but the good news is that the other two are doing great ... moving like mad, and measuring right on schedule, with great strong heartbeats.

On other exciting baby front news, I didn't mention that we had a CVS done. Due to my sister's age, we decided to do genetic testing. We also got those results today. Both babies are wonderful and healthy. Oh, and a boy and girl!!!

Yes, one of each, and they are VERY excited.

So, that's the update. I'm excited for this weekend. My parents are taking the kids, and DH and I are planning on relaxing and taking it easy.

I'll update soon, I promise!

Caba

The status of things ...

2009-01-31T10:31:00.004-05:00

I know. It's been a while. Is it just me, or do most of my posts seem to start this way as of late? I had some kind of psyhco-intense sinus infection! I was on one type of antibiotic for a few days, and it didn't seem to be working, so they switched me to another. Finally, FINALLY I am feeling better. It really took a full 2 weeks for me to feel like a normal person again. And for me, normal means I can breath and taste, and I'm as nauseous as can be. 8-)

But, I'm 11 weeks today! So the time is passing, and I'm getting closer to the end of morning sickness (I hope!) My morning sickness ended at 16 weeks with the twins, so I'm hoping for that again.

Besides that, I'm spending a ridiculous amount of time on Twinstuff and Facebook. Really, they are taking over my life.

I'm sorry I've been such a slacker with my own kids. I haven't even been good about taking pictures of them! So I have no pictures to post, because I'm not taking any. I stink. This whole pregnancy thing is wiping me out, and I'm lucky that I'm making it through the day!

I did spill the beans to a few people at work ... it's weird, because I'm not sure how much I want to share. Some people I have told the whole story, some people I haven't ... so everyone's floored that I'm pregnant with multiples again when my kids aren't even 2. And they keep talking about how crazy full my hands will be. And I don't correct them. Because it's just a lot of info that I don't feel like everyone needs to know. So I'm not sure what to say. Eventually, it will have to all come out. I mean, I don't want anyone at work throwing me a shower, or sending gifts when the babies are born, that would be weird!

Anyway, I'm getting bigger ... I'm already wearing maternity pants. I can't decide if that's because it's triplets or because I'm eating a ridiculous amount of pizza (the babies are craving it, not me!) hehe ... but I do feel like a fat blimp. But hey, it's all for a good reason, so I will embrace the chub.

Ok ... I really am going to try to update more often, and I'm going to start writing about non-baby stuff. But for now, my parents have taken the kids off our hands ... they took them to music class and then they are all going to lunch ... so I'm going to enjoy the sweet silence of my house!

Caba

I'm not feeling well

2009-01-21T16:38:00.002-05:00

I know. I kind of suck. I feel like crap and I'm not updating you all. But really, there isn't much to say. Still pregnant, still vomiting on occasion, but now with added sinus infection fun! Yes, I got a cold that decided to turn into a super painful sinus infection. So I started my antibiotics today, and I hope to feel like something of a normal person in a day or two.

Otherwise, things are ok. My husband is amazing and wonderful and running the household like a champ. My parents are TOTALLY helping out like crazy ... this past weekend they picked the kids up at 930am on Sat morning to take them to music class, and then out to lunch so DH and I could get a break. They then took them out to lunch, and didn't bring them home until nap time. So that was nice. But Sunday I work up feeling crappier than before, so DH drove the kids to my parents and dropped them off at 9am, and my parents didn't bring them home until 7pm that night. It was so nice to be able to sleep and stay in bed all day when I felt so bad.

My sis is doing ok ... She had her second round of chemo, so now she feels like crap. And on top of that, she also got a cold, which turned into bronchitis, so she is also on antibiotics. We can't cut a break, can we?? But, 2 rounds of chemo down, and 2 more to go ... I'm so anxious for this to be over for her.

It's weird to be pregnant. I talk to the babies a lot and tell them about how lucky they are, and what wonderful parents they have.

Oh, I have a question for any other IPs out there ... when did it feel real to you? My sister and I were talking the other day about how it just doesn't seem real to her and her husband. They are living their lives, dealing with her chemo, and neither have fully wrapped their brains around the fact that I'm pregnant with THEIR babies. Now, I am full aware of it ... because it's happening to my body. But I don't know it will seem more real to them. I was just wonderful how other intended parents felt about this ...

Thanks,
Caba

Quiet weekend...

2009-01-10T08:56:00.002-05:00

It's nice and quiet here this morning. This means: no kids! My sister was going to take the kids last night, and my parents tonight, but we have a snow storm coming, so my mom just took them for both nights so no one would have to drive today. It probably worked out for the best, as my sis has had a bad last couple of days. Her hair is gone. It was falling out a lot, so she had her husband shave it off. I can't even imagine how hard that must have been.

I saw her yesterday, and I thought her wig looked cute, but that doesn't really take away from the fact of how had it must be to know your hair is gone. I mean, none of us are stupid, we know it's going to grow back, it's only hair, etc. But my heart hurts for her. I hope the little bubs in my belly give her somethings to smile about when she doesn't feel like smiling.

On the "me" front, I'm sick. Still. No big surprise here. This past week was my first week back at work with the full on all-day sickness (no morning here!). It was ok. I had 2 throw-up episodes in the morning ... but mostly just nausea. The Zofran is helping a little, but not as much as I would have liked. I'm tired, a lot. And it's pretty hard adjusting to being pregnant, sick and tired, as well as having 21 month old twins that really don't understand why you won't pick them up, carry them around, or why you just want to lay on the couch in peace.

So it's tough. There are no two ways about that. But my few months of discomfort are MORE than worth the lifetime of happiness my sister and her husband are going to get from these bubs. So, I deal with it.

Gemini Girl asked about my maternity leave. It's pretty straight forward. As far as insurance goes, my personal medical insurance will cover all my maternity needs, my docs, the vists, delivery, etc. When I talked to my insurance company their take on it was "We don't care how you get pregnant, or what you are going to do with the baby (ies) after you give birth to them, while you are pregnant, it is your body and you are covered."

As far as leave off work goes, it's short term disability. So whenever my doc puts me out, I go on short term disability. Assuming I have a c-section, I will get 8 weeks after the birth of the babies. Then my leave is over. I do not get to use FMLA, since that is reserved for the birth or adoption of a child (baby bonding time) and I won't have any babies to bond with. Plus, that is unpaid, so I wouldn't be taking that time off anyway.

My sister on the other hand will be able to utilize her FMLA, because it is baby bonding time for her. She won't get the short-term disability, obviously, because that is medically to recover from the birth, and she isn't giving birth.

I do need to take this time to thank my amazing husband as well. He rocks beyond belief. He is really running the house right now. He's getting the kids ready in the morning, taking them to daycare, picking them up if I don't feel up to it, making dinner, letting me sleep in on the weekends, taking care of baths, and basically being a super amazing Mr Mom, while I sit on the couch and want to vomit. He is amazing and perfect and I am insanely lucky to have him! Thanks babe! I love you!

A Big Update

2009-01-05T20:16:00.006-05:00

So, I lied. I said I was going to do a big update this weekend with pictures, and I didn't.

But first and foremost, I'm going to give you a link to a blog you MUST read. It's my husbands. He's beyond funny. Seriously! Remember that crazy post he put up here about the kids? Well, he is sillier on his blog. It's not kidcentric, it's just a silly guy talking about silly stuff. And you'll like it. I promise! So go show a little love over at Millions of Atoms. Thank You!

Ok, now on the the baby stuff! Ultrasound number 3 today, and it's getting slightly anticlimatic. 3 sacs, 3 babies floating about, 3 beautifully beating hearts. Everyone is growing right on schedule. I am 7w2d today, and two of them were measuring 7w1d and the other is 7w3d, so right where they should be. Heartbeats were good and strong. And the doc said each baby was the size of a finger tip. So can someone please explain to me how three fingertips can make me vomit multiple times a day? Yes, I am still sick. THANKFULLY, my sister talked our nurse into getting me some Zofran to help with the morning sickness. I'm trying to only take 1 pill a day if I really need it. But it sucked get to work this morning and then immediately going to throw up and then have to go sit at my desk. Boy did I enjoy the last 2 weeks off!

So let's talk about that. Christmas was chaotic. The kids were very excited about all their gifts, but they REALLY loved their 50's style diner. Isn't this adorable?

Here is the Moop eating a Christmas morning cookie at the diner.

And here is the Boots making an absolutely pissed off face at me while coloring with her Dad.

We got them a bunch of other gifts too: and Elmo guitar, Little.People Farm, books, puzzles, etc. They loved everything! Chrissy and Ant came over to give the twins there gifts, and had breakfast with us which was fun.

We went down to DH's sister's house for Christmas, which was a lot of fun. Lots of people there, and the twins got TOTALLY overloaded with gifts which is always fun for them! Makes me think that maybe my house is just too small!!

Two days after Christmas we had a second Christmas with my family. So, MORE GIFTS! My parents bought the twins a boatload of stuff! So my house is PACKED. We certainly don't have enough room for all these toys!! My kids are spoiled rotten. They have a lot of people that really love them and like to spoil them! And really, isn't it the right of a Grandparent to do that?

Ok, so I'm ready to go relax now. I promised my sister I would put up pics, which I did. So good night!

Caba

I have so much to say ...

2008-12-29T21:10:00.002-05:00

yet I'm too nauseous to type it all out. But I will, I promise!

First, let's get the news out of the way. We had our ultrasound this morning. 3 sacs still there. 3 fetal poles. 3 beating hearts. I think the three adults in the rooms may have had our hearts stop for a second.

So. That's the deal. I'm pregnant with my sister's triplets. She's going to owe me so much. But right now I really just want her to take the Boots away and never give her back, as she is driving me up the wall. But that's a story for another day when I feel better (come back in 10 weeks, or so.)

I'm excited. I really am. I'm also scared. I'm also so anxious for this to go quickly so my sister can be done with her cancer treatment, and I can hand over her babies.

Thank you all for checking in on me. I will do my best to put up a real update this weekend ... with pics and everything!!

Caba

An unexpected result

2008-12-22T19:58:00.004-05:00

3 sacs. 2 of them with fetal poles. Oh.My.Goodness.

Ya know, I was feeling pretty nauseous this weekend. Jake was getting over a stomach bug, so I thought maybe I caught it. Yeah, I didn't. It's called pregnancy. I had a feeling since the morning sickness started earlier than last time that it was at least twins. But trips? Woah.

One of the sacs was empty, so the doctor said that either that one stopped developing, or it was just a late implanter and we'll see if in there next week. I haven't yet decided how I feel about trips. I think my sister is extremely excited, and pretty damn overwhelmed. I know that's how I feel.

Next u/s: Dec 29th. We should see heartbeats at that point. I can't wait to see Ant and Chrissy's face when they see/hear them.

I'm so tired. I know this post sucks. But I gotta go to sleep!

I will write more later!

Caba

A lesson in commenting ...

2008-12-17T19:46:00.004-05:00

I love my family-in-laws. Truly I do. They are great. And they really seems like an intelligent bunch. But ... They can't comment. They can't figure it out. They don't know how.

My mother-in-law has been trying to comment for like 2 months. I love you Robin, but seriously, what's going on? Carol, you always send me the sweetest emails, why can't you figure out how to comment??

I just have to laugh every time I get an email from one of them saying "I tried to comment on the blog, but I couldn't figure it out ... "

So, here is a lesson in commenting. It's so ridiculously easy, that you should all be ashamed of yourselves.

Underneath each post, you will see this:

Start by clicking on the comments link. This will take you to the page where you can leave a comment.

Write whatever you would like in the big box under "Leave Your Comment". Simple so far right?

I think the confusion lies in the "Choose an identity" portion of the comment leaving. But its really easy. The option you want to choose is Name/Url.

All you need to do is enter your name in the name field. The URL field is optional and doesn't need to be filled in. And then click the "Publish Your Comment" button. That's IT! Really! That's all you need to do! So please please please leave a comment now!

I hope this service announcement has helped you all. And if you still can't figure it out, you are useless. I give up! 8-)

On the "How am I feeling" news, I'm feeling fine. I had a 2 minute wave of nausea in the supermarket the other day, but it passed pretty quickly. With the twins, I didn't get sick this early either, so next week will be a lot more telling.

This week could possibly go down as one of the slowest in history. I am DYING for the ultrasound on Monday. I want to see how many are in there. I want them to do my bloodwork and see that all my levels are still where they should be.

Little Boots is cute beyond words though. I told her that Chrissy's baby is in my belly, so she rubs my belly and says "Chrissy Baby". It's the cutest thing ever!

So, to recap, leave a comment, it's easy. This week is slow and I'm annoyed. And Boots is smarter than anything and as adorable as ever.

Enjoy,
Caba

And the results are in ...

2008-12-13T20:32:00.007-05:00

I'm pregnant. Or really, WE are pregnant I suppose is the right way to word it.

Wow, right? It's some wonderfully amazing news. Let me give you the run down of the last few days.

Thursday morning (9dp3dt) I decided to pee on a stick (going forward to be known as POAS). I just couldn't wait anymore. I needed to know what was going on in my body! I got a positive result pretty quickly. The plus sign showed up on the ept. Woo hoo! I took the test at 6am in the morning and had no one to celebrate with! I woke up DH and told him, and he was very sleepy and happy and congratulated me and promptly went back to sleep. I, on the other hand, could not sleep.

The problem was, the test was expired. It was from way back when I was trying to get pregnant before the twins. So I didn't know if an expired test was ok. I did a bit of googling, and sure enough, they say you can get a false positive on an expired test. So Thursday at lunch I went and bought more tests.

*****Warning! Possible TMI to follow.*****
So that afternoon at work I went to the bathroom, and had some reddish/brownish discharge. I immediately freaked. Even though I had been through this before. Even though this EXACT same thing had happened during my cycle with the twins. It's called implantation bleeding, and the doctor said it's completely normal, and that brownish blood is fine. It means it's old blood. It's the red blood that you must be nervous about. But still, no one wants to see any kind of bloody discharge, old or not. It totally messes with your head!

So, that night I POAS again. But this time, it was the new test. Again, I got a positive. I was feeling much more optimistic.

Friday morning I woke up and took the ept Certainty test. It's a digital one. It doesn't have a plus sign, it either prints out the word "Pregnant" or "Not Pregnant". We got a pregnant!

So, what to do? I went to work, and called my sister. We chit chatted, and she was pretty much completely convinced that the cycle was a bust. She didn't have any faith and I just couldn't listen to her sound so dejected, so I told her about what I thought was implantation bleeding. It definitely perked her up. And then she said "Ok, I can't wait, let's do a pregnancy test tonight!". After going back and forth for a few minutes, I told her I already had done 3, and they were all positive.

So, I called our clinic and I asked if I could come in for an early beta. Oh, and here is where I admit our little lie. My beta was originally scheduled for Sat Dec 13th, not Monday the 15th. We didn't want to announce anything until we not only got a positive beta, but we had a properly doubling beta. So we decided to say we would find out Monday, knowing that actually the 2nd beta would be that day.

Our clinic told me to come in. This was 10am Friday morning. I left work and ran over there and did my bloodwork. Two hours later the call came in. Positive beta, with a great number, 210!!! That's a great number for 13dpo (days post ovulation) or 10dp3dt. I had my beta with the twins a day later (at 14dpo) and it was 389. So I'm hoping beyond hope for twins!!

So, if you are following along, you will realize that our second beta was actually Sunday. It's always two days after the initial beta. So, that happened yesterday. And our second beta was 462. So we doubled! Woo hoo! We are cautiously optimistic! It's hard to be an infertile, both for me and Chrissy, and feel like pregnancy test = take home baby/babies in 9 months. Infertility kinda takes that away from you. It's a constant worry. A constant waiting for the next step.

But for now, for today, I'm happy. Our first ultrasound is Monday Dec 22nd. We are all excited to see what's going on in there!

So, I'm physically pregnant, but Chrissy is the real one who is expecting a child. There is a shirt that I think I want to buy and wear around. It says "Her bun, my oven". Chrissy, I want to promise you that I will do everything in my power to protect your bun/buns and keep them safe for the next 8 months! I love you and I'm so excited to be on this journey together!

And thanks to you all for your support guys! I'll be updating with more info as I get it!

Caba

5dp3dt

2008-12-07T08:22:00.005-05:00

So, that stands for 5 days post a day 3 transfer. Not much to report. My boobs are sore. I'm crampy. I'm tired. All pregnancy symptoms? Sure. But also results of the Progesterone I'm taking. It's too early to know anyway. Gosh, why is time going so absolutely slowly??

My sister is doing ok. She was out of work all week because she was so uncomfortable after her retrieval. It was like her ovaries were the size of melons, and she felt like she was full from eating a big meal non-stop. It sucks! I wish she would feel better soon. The poor girl has had such a long road. Luckily she didn't get OHSS as bad as she has in the past, but it's there a little bit, and it's still really uncomfortable. It's never easy, is it??

I, on the other hand, am currently enjoying a VERY quiet house! Friday was me and DH's 5 year anniversary! I love him SO much. We got married 5 years ago in the middle of a freaking blizzard. And no, I'm not kidding. There was like 2 feet of snow. In New Jersey. on Dec 5th. It never snows that early. But OF COURSE it did. We watched our wedding video on Friday night, and it is still one of the best days of my life.

So my parents took the twins for us for the weekend. They picked them up Saturday morning around 10am, and we will be going to get them on Monday night. Woo hoo! Yesterday we had a totally lazy day of watching Christmas movies, and taking naps. Then we went out for a nice dinner last night. Today we are planning on going to the movies (Twilight, I'm excited!) and then going out to lunch. Just like the pre-kid days. Although, I'll be honest, I've already called my parents like 12 times. hehe.

Ya know, 20 months is not a good age to try and do a Christmas photo shoot. UGH! We tried yesterday morning before they went with my parents, and they really don't want to sit on a chair together. They also don't want to smile, don't want to hold hands, don't want to stand anywhere near each other, and generally seem to not like each other or us. Fun.

So, here were the BEST pics we got from our first photo shoot, about a week ago. Not so bad from Moop.

But we got this from Miss Boots. Not a smile in sight.

And when we tried for a picture of both of them, we got this.

So, at this point, Mommy threw in the towel and said "Screw it, we'll try another day." So yesterday was that day. We got this adorable picture of Miss Boots. Please try and ignore her less than ladylike sitting position.

And we got many cute ones of our man, who was being very cooperative. But I guess he liked the way his sister was sitting.

And then we kinda got one of them together. We realized that they were unwilling to share a chair, so they each needed their own chair. Problem was, one pic she was smiling and he wasn't. The next, he was, but not her. So Mommy used Photo.Shot, and came out with this. Yes, they are smiling at Elmo on the tv and not us, but really, whatever.

And then just a few of my favorite pics taken over the last few days. Here are the twins with Daddy getting ready to watch Rudolph. They LOVE Rudolph and Santa and run around the house saying their names.

Here is one of Moop just being a super goof.

And this one makes me laugh because it looks straight out of a rap video. She looks like she is throwing gang signs or something!

Thanks for stopping by. Monday the 15th can't get here quick enough!

Caba

And away we go!!!! -- UPDATED

2008-12-02T11:04:00.003-05:00

The day is here. Transfer today at 2pm. Holy Crap. I'm excited, nervous, anxious, and more than anything else in the world, I want this to work.

I'll update after transfer to let you know how many we put in, and when the pregnancy test will be!

Wow. I'm about to go get pregnant!

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, I'm home now. Laying in my bed relaxing and the DH is off getting me some dinner. Love him. Transfer was fine. Although seriously, I hate the whole full bladder thing. I HATE IT! This time I was smarter than at my transfer and paced myself a little better. I was still REALLY needing to pee when we went in for the transfer. My sister was with me, and we were giggling as I told her I was going to pee on the table when the ultrasound tech pushed on my belly. Ugh.

They transferred 4 embryos. 2 8 cell, 1 6 cell and 1 4 cell that was a bit of a slacker, but the embryologist said looked so good they still wanted to transfer it.

Can you all keep all your fingers and toes crossed for me and my sister? Thank you all. She deserves some good news. So does her husband. And I really hope I can be the person that gives it to them.

And thus begins the 2 week wait. Beta #1: Monday Dec 15th.

It can't get here quick enough!

Caba

Thank You

2008-11-26T20:47:00.003-05:00

So, here is my Thanksgiving post. I don't even want to write a post, because I love the one my husband wrote so much, and I don't want it to not be the one all the new readers read. He's a funny guy right? Yeah, I'm lucky, he's a good one!

Anyway, today was a lovely Thanksgiving feast! My mom made the turkey, stuffing, and sweet potato casserole. My sister brought the mashed potatoes, another type of stuffing, and Butternut Squash soup. I made some different veggies, a corn bread casserole and homemade Mac and Cheese. Add biscuits and cranberry jello mold and it was A LOT of food! And there were only 7 adults there! It was crazy. But nice to have such a mellow family Turkey Day. The kids would only eat the mashed potatoes, mac and cheese and this cranberry jello mold. Oh well, maybe turkey just isn't there thing.

We did the tradition of going around the table and saying what we are thankful for. There's so much, sometimes it's hard to remember. Especially when you feel like you are dealing with one bad thing after another. It's nice sometimes to stop and take a moment to appreciate the good. Like my husband, my amazing amazing husband. Seriously, I have no idea what I would do without that guy. He's my better half, my heart and soul, the love of my life. I know how lucky I am to have him, and I try to let him know, a lot. Obviously I'm thankful to my amazing kids. They make me smile and laugh on a daily basis, and definitely keep me young (and tired!) I'm thankful to my parents who have given me unwavering support and love throughout my life. I'm thankful to my siblings, who show me endless love.

I'm really really excited about the upcoming transfer. Oh, did I forget to mention that! We are in the home stretch (well, kinda). My sister's retrieval is set for Saturday! Wow. Which means if it's a Day 3 transfer it will be this Tuesday! Day 5 will be Thursday! Oh. My. God. How did we get here? The good news is that the end is in sight! The bad news is that I have to start my PIO shots on Saturday night. For those of you that aren't infertility savvy, that means Progesterone in oil. It's a big-ass shot that goes in, well, your ass (cheek). It's intra-muscular, so it's a long needle. And it's not all that much fun. But it's necessary. So, those start Saturday.

I'm really hoping to get a positive pregnancy test in the next few weeks. It would be such a great holiday gift for my sister. And she really deserves some good news right about now.

So, Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Hope you had a great day!

Caba

Dad Speaks

2008-11-21T10:22:00.008-05:00

I want to do a post!

Well, do a post then…

Fine!

Don’t yell at me.

I will yell at whomever I wish!

Take your “whomever” and stick it.

Listen; stop distracting me from my post. This is important!

We’ll see…

There you go again, undermining my posting ability!

You are still yelling.

YOU are yelling!

Nuh-uh.

Are TOO!

Wow, I’m sorry you had to read through all of that. The “terrible twos”, as they are commonly called, are rapidly approaching and I feel like I’m in the middle of an argument at all hours, even with myself. Mind you, our kids are not two, so if this isn’t the terrible twos yet, (the “Nightmarish Nineteen Months—es’s’seses?), then we are probably going to have to build an underground bunker and just ride out the entire year of 2009. Steel-enforced bunker. Radiation proof. Anyway, here are some examples of “(Pre) Terrible Twos (Coming this spring to Fox!)”

The Moop couldn’t stack three little Santa Claus figures on top of each other (which weren’t meant to be stacked anyway), so he threw himself face first on the ground and kicked his legs very hard. He also cried until he choked.
Boots tried to open the gate we have at the foot of our stairs which was locked on purpose so that she shouldn’t be able to open it. After 10 seconds of attempting to open the locked gate, she yelled very loudly and then grabbed Moop in a bear hug, head butting him repeatedly until he cried.
Both Boots and the Moop scream “MINE!” reflexively, even if they aren’t pointing at anything specifically, and even if they are alone.
Boots very often points at Mommy and shouts “MINE!” when the Moop is sitting in her lap reading a book. Meaning, of course, that her voice has been modeled after a landMINE exploding in your brain cavity.
On random nights, Boots requires that she take her dinner while sitting in my lap facing me. She refuses to sit in a common high chair like the peasant children do. She will then accept bites of food of her choosing, which she then will chew slowly while resting her head on my shoulder. While this happens, the Moop eats a few bites of something, and then takes his hand and sweeps all other bites of food onto the floor while farting and laughing. Come to think of it, he probably got that from me. I’ll let that slide.
The Moop will seek out any button that runs any type of electrical equipment and then proceed to turn it on and off 368 times until the button offers its letter of resignation moves on to greener pastures.
The Boots will wake up at 5:00 am on some mornings and begin to serenade the house with a song she wrote that contains the names of every object she has ever seen, or any person she has ever met. “Mommy, Daddy, Apple, Puppy…” and so on until my fingers are pressed so far into my ears the tips touch each other somewhere near the part of my brain responsible for finding my car keys.
When it is time to leave for daycare in the morning, Boots will streak through the house looking for a hiding place rather than getting her shoes for me. That leaves me stalking through the house carrying two tiny pink sneakers looking for a pair of midget eyes and a tuft of hair.
We have approximately 9,321 children’s books in our living room. When Boots decides it is book reading time, she points at the massive book pile and says “Mine?” That leaves me to take a book, hold it up to her and ask “This one?” She will then most likely say “No?” This series of escalating questions usually ends with me holding up all 9,321 books in turn leading me back to the first book, which is the one she wanted all along. By this time, however, I have arthritis and the Moop has already applied for college.

I love being a Dad; I really do. More often than not, I find myself LOL-ing and ROFLMAO-ing and other internet idiocies. (And really, if people LOL-ed as often in real life as they do on the internet, there would be about 10,000,000,000 people being evaluated for psychological problems. “How was work today? LOL!!!” “It was OK… ROFLMAO!!!1!11!” “I drank coffee! *choking from laughing so hard*” Seriously, take it down a notch, internet chatters. You aren’t that happy. You just aren’t.) As a parent, I feel like I’m allowed to be annoyed sometimes. My sleep patterns are constantly messed with, and I am constantly told how much I am loved by a giant purple dinosaur, which is exactly as disconcerting as it sounds.

I do know that my kids are growing up entirely too fast. The other day, Moop helped me figure out the new tax laws, and I was all like “Wha?!?!?” and he was all like “PUPPY!” and then I was all “Dude!” Strangely enough, I followed everything he said, and I guess in the end that’s what being a parent is: Understanding your kids even if they are speaking gibberish. If I get annoyed, I’ll blame it on a lack of sleep. If I get a bigger tax refund, I’ll thank the Moop, because he is a tax genius. If I stumble upon Middle Earth one day, I’ll thank Boots because she is a mischievous hobbit. If I survive the teenage years, I’ll thank myself with a hearty handshake and a “Well done, sir!” which will probably put me in line with the other 10,000,000,000 people being mentally evaluated, and that suits me just fine.

Slacking...

2008-11-16T20:20:00.003-05:00

Sorry about that. It's been a long week and a half. I've been really sick. First, I had a cold that just would not go away. Finally the Dr decided maybe it was more than a cold and put me on antibiotics and some other thing. It finally kicked whatever I hadd out of my system. But not before TOTALLY screwing up my stomach. So yeah, it's been fun. Blech.

On the cycle front, I finished my week and a day of doing my lupron, and went on Friday for my first ultrasound and bloodwork. All looked good. Lining was nice and thing and ready to be plumped up! Ovaries were suppressed. They lowered by dosage of Lupron, from 10 to 5, and now I'm taking Estrace twice a day. I go back Tuesday for my next ultrasound and bloodwork. My sister started her shots too ... so I think we are still on schedule for her retrieval somewhere around Turkey day.

I'm tired and honestly don't feel like doing a longer update, even if I should. But I will leave you with some super adorable pics of the twins. They had their "school" picture a few weeks ago, and we just got them. I can't get over how OLD they look. I have realized, as much as I don't want to admit it, that I do not have babies anymore. I have toddlers. I'm not ready.

Here is Boots channeling her inner Pebbles Flintstone.

And here is Mr Moop looking cute as ever. They combed his hair forward, and it just looks too funny!

And lastly, the two of them together. They really are beyond cute. I have no idea how the photographer was able to get a picture of them together where they actually both looked at him! But I'm glad he did!

Enjoy,
Caba

Shot Night #2

2008-11-07T19:10:00.002-05:00

We had the life insurance guy come yesterday, since DH and I don't have life insurance outside of from our work. So we really needed to get that taken care of. But the appt ran really long, and we were watching the clock, because the nurse told me to do my shot between 7-9pm. We just made it at 845pm. It was so easy really. And I've done these tiny shots before, and yet, I still was slightly stressed about it. Totally no big deal physically, but kind of a big deal mentally. It's the start of the cycle. I'm excited, nervous, scared, and mostly really really really wishing with all my heart that it will work.

Ok, took a break from writing this post to do shot #2. All went well. DH does the shots, even though they are easy. This way I can just watch tv and not pay attention to all the goings on. hehe. He's the best.

I'm still slightly sick. It's been lingering for a week, and it's VERY annoying. I want it to go away.

Did I mention that I'm in the middle of the reading the Twilight series and I really love it? I need to find someone who will go see the movie with me, because I know DH will so not be into it.

I have a headache, so this post will be a short one. 2 shots down, many to go! Supress ovaries, suppress!

Caba

So much going on ...

2008-11-05T19:29:00.004-05:00

I'm sorry I've been slacking. I'm sick AGAIN! I'm seriously so sick of being sick. I'm getting sick more than the kids!

Halloween was totally low key over here. We left work early on Friday to go to the kids Halloween parade at daycare. Needless to say, it didn't go smoothly. The older kids were fine ... but the younger ones didn't really know that to do, and once Boots and Moop say us, they ran over, and didn't want to stay in the parade and kept crying until we picked them up. Chaos at it's best. We literally got no pictures from the parade. Then we came home and they ran around the yard in their costumes looking so cute and playing with their pumpkins. We didn't take them trick or treating. They are too young and definitely don't need the candy. Plus, we wanted to keep them on schedule with dinner, baths and bed. Next year for sure we will take them trick or treating!

Here's Moop making a funny face on the front steps

And here's me and the Boot

Here's the two of 'em lounging on the front steps

And this last one makes me laugh. It's been a long day for Mr Moop

Now, on a very exciting and terrifying note, I got my meds in the mail yesterday! I forgot how big those damn PIO needles are! Oh man, those are so my least favorite shots EVER. But for such a good cause. 8-)

Tomorrow is the day. Seems like we've been talking about it forever. Tomorrow night I start my Lupron shots and will start this surrogacy journey. Holy crap. Hopefully I will be pregnant soon. Woo hoo!

Caba

Our Fun Weekend

2008-10-28T19:21:00.000-05:00

It's been a long weekend. Friday night I was pretty beat, since I was up with Boots since 5am. She decided that was a good time to wake up. So I snuck her into the spare room and tried to get her to go back to sleep with me ... but no go. She was up, and just wanted to chit chat and watch Tigger and Pooh. So I made it through work on Friday ... and I couldn't get to sleep fast enough that night.

Saturday she was up again at 5am. Lucky for me, it was my turn to sleep in, and DH's turn to get up with them. So he was up from 5am on ... I ended up sleeping in until like 8am, which doesn't seem like much, but it was!! Especially considering I went to bed at like 10pm the night before.

We went to music class on Saturday, and ran a few errands, and then came home and put the kids down for a nap. Boots took a good 2.5 hour one, and so did DH. Once everyone woke up, we got ready for my cousin's halloween party. We did a family costume ... I was Wilma Flintstone, DH was Fred, and the twins were Pebbles and Bam Bam ... they were so cute. I'm really annoyed right now, because I have pictures to share with you, and shutterfly is not working!! Blech! And to make matters worse, I didn't get one picture of the 4 of us together! But my cousins did, so hopefully they can forward some over so I can post them! The party was fun, if not certainly chaotic ... there were a LOT of kids there! Here's a few pics I snapped of the family before and during the party.

Lady Boots looking cute as little Pebbles Flintstone.

Mr Moop being a super cute Bam Bam Rubble.

Now, the kids are also going to be Eeyore and Piglet at daycare on Friday for Halloween. We found the cosumes in our basement a few weeks ago. My cousin has triplets that are exactly 4 years older than the twins. So she had given me a whole bunch of stuff, and we found Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet costumes. So cute! Here are a few pics from us trying the costumes on.

The Sweetest Piglet you have ever seen.

And look at this Eeyore. Seriously, he is a chubby Moop.

DH and I played Rock Band 2 Saturday night for a few hours, and then off to bed I went. Only to be woken up by that Boot at 5am again. Seriously, this crap is getting old.

My parents and sister and Ant came over on Sunday for the day, my mom brought her homemade sauce and meatballs and sausage. It was super delish, and we all ate a lot like piggies. The kids were beyond adorable as they proudly showed their support of the NY Giants. And they certainly were lucky helping the Giants win the game!

Finally, DH brought Halloween cupcakes for dessert the other night. Here is the main difference between my kids. Look at my dainty little lady eating a cupcake. She kept putting one finger in the icing and eating very sweetly.

Her brother on the other hand? Not so much.

Enjoy!
Caba

Shutter.fly sucks

2008-10-27T19:07:00.009-05:00

I want to put up a new post. I want to have one with tons of pictures from the Halloween party we went to this weekend. But Shutter.fly isn't working, and I'm annoyed. It's not working today, it wasn't working yesterday. And I'm pissed. So that's that.

In lieu of that, you will get me doing a meme that I like and have seen on a bunch of other blogs. Here's the rules:

A) Go to Music Outfitters.

B) In the search function, enter the year you graduated from high school. Get the list of the 100 most popular songs of that year.

C) Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate, and underline or italicize your favorite. Do nothing to those you don’t remember or don’t care about.

1. End Of The Road, Boyz II Men
2. Baby Got Back, Sir Mix A-lot
~~3. Jump, Kris Kross~~
4. Save The Best For Last, Vanessa Williams
5. Baby-Baby-Baby, TLC
6. Tears In Heaven, Eric Clapton
7. My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It), En Vogue
8. Under The Bridge, Red Hot Chili Peppers
~~9. All 4 Love, Color Me Badd~~
10. Just Another Day, Jon Secada
11. I Love Your Smile, Shanice
12. To Be With You, Mr. Big
~~13. I'm Too Sexy, Right Said Fred~~
14. Black Or White, Michael Jackson
~~15. Achy Breaky Heart, Billy Ray Cyrus~~
16. I'll Be There, Mariah Carey
17. November Rain, Guns N' Roses
18. Life Is A Highway, Tom Cochrane
19. Remember The Time, Michael Jackson
~~20. Finally, CeCe Peniston~~
21. This Used To Be My Playground, Madonna
22. Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough, Patty Smyth
23. Can't Let Go, Mariah Carey
24. Jump Around, House Of Pain
25. Diamonds and Pearls, Prince and The N.P.G.
26. Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me, George Michael and Elton John
27. Masterpiece, Atlantic Starr
28. If You Asked Me To, Celine Dion
29. Giving Him Something He Can Feel, En Vogue
30. Live and Learn, Joe Public
31. Come and Talk To Me, Jodeci
32. Smells Like Teen Spirit, Nirvana
33. Humpin' Around, Bobby Brown
~~34. Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover, Sophie B. Hawkins~~
35. Tell Me What You Want Me To Do, Teven Campbell
36. Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg, TLC
37. It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday, Boyz II Men
38. Move This, Technotronic
39. Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen
40. Tennessee, Arrested Development
41. The Best Things In Life Are Free, Luther Vandross and Janet Jackson
42. Make It Happen, Mariah Carey
43. The One, Elton John
~~44. Set Adrift On Memory Bliss, P.M. Dawn~~
45. Stay, Shakespear's Sister
~~46. 2 Legit 2 Quit, Hammer~~
47. Please Don't Go, K.W.S.
48. Breakin' My Heart (Pretty Brown Eyes), Mint Condition
49. Wishing On A Star, Cover Girls
50. She's Playing Hard To Get, Hi-Five
51. I'd Die Without You, P.M. Dawn
52. Good For Me, Amy Grant
53. All I Want, Toad The Wet Sprocket
54. When A Man Loves A Woman, Michael Bolton
55. I Can't Dance, Genesis
56. Hazard, Richard Marx
57. Mysterious Ways, U2
58. Too Funky, George Michael
59. How Do You Talk To An Angel, Heights
60. One, U2
61. Keep On Walkin', CeCe Peniston
62. Hold On My Heart, Genesis
63. The Way I Feel About You, Karyn White
~~64. Beauty and The Beast, Calms Dion and Peabo Bryson~~
65. Warm It Up, Kris Kross
66. In The Closet, Michael Jackson
67. People Everyday, Arrested Development
68. No Son Of Nine, Genesis
69. Wildside, Marky Mark and The Funky Bunch
70. Do I Have To Say The Words?, Bryan Adams
71. Friday I'm In Love, Cure
72. Everything About You, Ugly Kid Joe
73. Blowing Kisses In The Wind, Paula Abdul
74. Thought I'd Died and Gone To Heaven, Bryan Adams
75. Rhythm Is A Dancer, Snap
76. Addams Groove, Hammer
77. Missing You Now, Michael Bolton
78. Back To The Hotel, N2Deep
79. Everything Changes, Kathy Troccoli
80. Have You Ever Needed Somone So Bad, Def Leppard
81. Take This Heart, Richard Marx
82. When I Look Into Your Eyes, Firehouse
83. I Wanna Love You, Jade
84. Uhh Ahh, Boyz II Men
85. Real Love, Mary J. Blige
86. Justified and Ancient, The KLF
87. Slow Motion, Color Me Badd
88. What About Your Friends, TLC
89. Thinkin' Back, Color Me Badd
90. Would I Lie To You?, Charles and Eddie
91. That's What Love Is For, Amy Grant
92. Keep Coming Back, Richard Marx
93. Free Your Mind, En Vogue
94. Keep It Comin', Keith Sweat
95. Just Take My Heart, Mr. Big
96. I Will Remember You, Amy Grant
97. We Got A Love Thang, CeCe Peniston
98. Let's Get Rocked, Def Leppard
99. They Want EFX, Das EFX
100. I Can't Make You Love Me, Bonnie Raitt

Wow! How is it that I have no idea what half of these songs are? I guess I was too busy listening to GOOD music ... most of which is NOT listed here. Oh well, Baby Got Back could be the best song ever!

Caba

I've been tagged!

2008-10-23T18:50:00.004-05:00

So Ginny over at Mom of 2 Dancers tagged me. I think I've done this one before, but I'll do it again. The hard part is coming up with 7 facts!

The rules are:
1. To link the tagger and provide the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

Ok ... here we go:

1. I am voting for Obama. In the past, I've considered myself a Republican. I'm embarrassed to admit I voted for GWB. Please don't hurt me. But I just can't vote Republican year. I just can't. I don't love Obama. Neither of these candidates are my dream candidates, but Obama is more in line with how I feel. He's made me want to be a better person, to be my brother's keeper, and take help take care of this world for my children. So he gets my vote, in a state that would go to him anyway, but I don't care, I'm voting.

2. I wish I lived in CA so I could vote No on Prop 8. I have never in my life heard a good reason for being against gay marriage. NEVER. And please don't tell me because it's in the Bible, because I will refer you to #3 on my list. But it's not a good reason. I don't understand why gay marriage being legal would in any way threaten the sanctity of marriage. Because it's not like us heterosexuals are doing so great in the marriage thing. It's discriminatory, and I honestly don't understand how anyone can think it's ok to offer up a certain set of rights to themselves, but not to someone else of a different sexual orientation.

3. I'm an atheist. I intend on raising super adorable baby atheists as well. So at least we will all end up in hell together.

4. I love the Counting Crows, and me and DH are going to see them next week in concert. I'm super excited.

5. I have no close girlfriends from college. All of my girlfriends I met in high school. When I went away to college, I was friends with girls, but none of them stayed apart of my life. But I still talk to my 4 best guy friends from college (and I married one of them!)

6. As much as I bitch about New Jersey, I love living here. I love the change of seasons, I love the location, to close to NYC, so close to the beach. I love the fast pace of the lifestyle and the people. I honestly can't imagine living anywhere else.

7. Me and my sister are obsessed with thumbs. She is going to laugh when she reads this. I don't really know how to explain it, but there are certain thumbs we dislike. And that's all I can really say about it, because there isn't a good way to explain.

8. I'm adding another one because it's my blog, and I can. Although it's not much of a secret. I love my sister. She's my best friend, and I honestly so excited to start this journey with her. I hope I do her proud, I really do.

On the surrogacy front, as soon as I get my period, I start my BCPs. Isn't it funny how an IVF cycle always starts with birth control pills? Sooooo ironic.

Ok, now I have to tag 7 people. I'm going to follow Ginny's lead and tag 7 new blogs that I'm just reading for the first time via ICLW.

Our Surrogacy Adventure
BagMomma
Sticky Feet: Part Deux
Who Shot My Stork?
Kicking You From The Inside
Bee in the Bonnet
Maybe it's just me ...

Caba

ICLW

2008-10-21T19:11:00.002-05:00

So, it's the beginning of ICLW and I figured it would probably help to give a quick background to any newcomers to my blog.

I'm Caba. I'm 34, and have been happily married to my DH for 5 years (in December). We started TTC about a year later, and nothing happened. After a year of trying/testing, we found out we had a whole slew of issues, and IVF/ICSI was the road we were going to have to go down. We consider ourselves extremely lucky to have been successful on our first cycle. Two embies in, two babies out. That would be our little lady, Boots, and our little gentleman, Mr Moop. They are 18 months and nothing but trouble. But wonderful trouble.

This blog was never a ttc blog. I started it after the twins were born. It has slightly morphed into being a little bit about me, but mostly about the kids. It's going to go through another morphing again, as I start the next very very exciting journey of my life.

My sister is my best friend and one of the most important people in my life. I talk to her every single day, and see her almost every day. Although I know that when she stops by every day it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with Boots and the Moop. Regardless of that, my sister has had a bit of a journey. The details will be hazy, as it's not my story to tell. But she has been dealing with infertility for a long time as well. But recently was diagnosed with breast cancer. Thankfully it was found early and she will be fine. But her cancer was estrogen driven, and she still needs to go through radiation. So when all is done, her doctors all agree that she should never get pregnant. This is where I come in.

I have offered to be a gestational carrier for her and her husband. They honored me by agreeing. We are starting this amazing journey and all very excited. They will be doing a fresh IVF cycle with her eggs and her husbands sperm, and I'm just offering up a uterus for nine months, give or take. We had our "All Day" at the clinic today and things look really good. Looks like we will be cycling late November/ Early December. So this blog will turn into a lot of the surrogacy story.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you continue to check in!

Caba

Sweet Silence ...

2008-10-19T19:00:00.002-05:00

What a nice weekend we had. I hate when it ends. Work stinks. Friday night I went to a jewelry party. It was mellow, not too many people there. Ate some yummy apps, bought some jewelry, and went home. My LOVELY husband allowed me to sleep in on Saturday. Then me and my sister took the kids to music class and out to lunch.

As soon as they woke up from their nap, we packed up all their stuff, and brought them over to Grandma and Opa's house! YEAH! My parents love keeping them for the night, and we love to get rid of them! Awww, I'm teasing! But everyone loves a quiet house! We dropped them off around 4pm, and came home to relax for a while before heading out to my friend Michele's for a dinner party. It was a really nice time ... There were four couples, everyone made (or bought) something, and we just drank and ate like piggies and just relaxed. Michele shipped her son out for the night too, so it was nice for us not to be worried about having the get up early with the kids.

Here is a pic of me and Joan relaxing after the fat meal!

We got home around midnight, and I woke up at 9am to a completely quiet house. It was SO nice. We went out to breakfast, went to Best.Buy and bought Rock.Band 2! Woo hoo ... we'll have to play that later this week. Then we lounged in bed and watched tv and watched the Giants before going to my parents around 4pm.

The kids were really happy to see us ... and it's amazing how much we missed them in a 24 hour period. Crazy. It really is. Here is a cute pic I snapped of the Moop at my parents, and a picture of Hailey chillin' on her rocking horse.

And a quick update on the gestational carrier-to-be front. Things are moving along great! We have what they call an "All Day" at our clinic this Tuesday. Me and DH and my sis and her husband have to go all day, and meet with doctors and psychologists and I have to go through a bunch of tests and stuff. The contract is done, and we just need to sign it and get it in.

It's really going to happen, and I'm beyond excited. I'm so honored that my sister is trusting me with such a huge thing, and I only hope I can do her and her husband proud. I'll keep you updated after the All Day to let you know of the cycle schedule. It's so crazy. Yeah!

Caba

Busy Weekend ...

2008-10-14T18:53:00.004-05:00

What a beautiful weekend it was here!! We had a really fun filled weekend. Saturday we went to the Philadelphia Zoo and met up with some mommies from the Twinstuff. It was such a gorgeous day, and the kids really enjoyed it! They especially loved the monkeys and the duck pond and the petting zoo. Here's a big gorilla that Boots liked.

Here's a cute pic of the Boots staring into the camera.

And my handsome dude!

The kids were really good at the zoo, but passed out as soon as we got in the car. Unfortunately now that the car seats are facing forward and not as reclined, the nap didn't last very long. So they had like a total of 30 minute nap. By the time we got home, it was too late to put them down. We even tried, but they wouldn't fall asleep. But they handled it well, but passed out quickly at bedtime.

Then on Sunday we went pumpkin picking with my friend Michele, her husband, and her son Michael, who is a month younger than the twins. It was fun. The kids loved seeing all the pumpkins, and kept yelling "Whoa!" every time they saw a bunch of pumpkins. We picked some little pumpkins, spent some time at the petting zoo, and conked out again on the ride home.

Here's Boots picking her pumpkin out of the patch.

And Mr Moop checking a pumpkin out.

Here's a cute one of me and kids. Boots' face is just precious! It's her "Are you kidding me??" look ...

And here she is, showing her cute smile!

And here she is again, with Daddy.

Later Sunday night we went to my parents for dinner. I got this great picture of my sister, her husband and the Moop cuddling.

So, I know I mentioned about my sister's cancer diagnosis. She has finished with her lumpectomy and is going to be starting her follow up treatment in the upcoming months. She will have to do radiation and medication, but we aren't sure about chemo yet.

But more excitingly, I might be lucky enough to give her and her husband a very very special gift. Because her cancer was estrogen driven, she can't ever get pregnant. But I can. For her. With her genetic child and me as the gestational carrier. I'm so excited I can't even talk about it.

But I had to share.

Caba

18 months

2008-10-09T18:59:00.007-05:00

So, I guess when I wasn't paying attention, my babies turned 18 months old! What the heck happened to those little tiny peanuts? Now they run around the house like crazy troublemakers!

18 month stats:

Mr Moop
Weight - 29lbs 15oz (91%)
Height - 35 inches (97%)
Head - 19 (65%)

Boots
Weight - 23lbs 5oz (35%)
Height - 33 1/2 inches (93%)
Head - 18 1/4 (45%)

We totally grow tall kids! I'm about 5'9'' and DH is 6'1'' so I guess it makes sense. Besides that, they got their flu shots, and DTAP shot, and are doing well. Lots of words, lots of understand. It's really cool to see how much they grow and change, and so quickly.

I am totally sick, and have been for a while now. I have this sucky cold that I just can not kick. Thankfully my family just ROCKS and my sister and her husband were over all day Sunday hanging out and then last night my mom, bro and sis took the kids out to dinner so DH and I could relax cause I just felt SO crappy after work. Ugh. I really need this to go away. We are supposed to be meeting up with some members off my twin site this weekend for a Philly Zoo day and I don't want to have to miss it.

So, without futher ado, PICTURES! Here is Ms Boots with Grandma

and Mr Moop laughing at Uncle Ants goatee

Aunt Chrissy brought over some cupcakes from Costco ... holy crap were they good! They were freakin' enormous! So we split one between the kids, and needless to say, they really liked them!

And here's a picture I love of Mr Moop with his cool shades on.

And Boots trying to bust into my bedroom ...

As you can tell from my pictures, Moops hair is out of control. I love it. I honestly do not want to cut it yet. Obviously I will have to. Eventually. But not now. It is funny when we give them a bath though. He has SO much hair. For your viewing pleasure ... Moop, prior to having his hair wet ...

Here is Daddy after sculpting Moops hair into a shark fin.

And after rinsing his hair. Look how long it is, as it hangs over his shoulder.

Enjoy,
Caba

Yeah, Yeah, I got more pics for you ...

2008-10-02T19:45:00.005-05:00

I've been slacking on updating, and I've been getting complaints. So, without further ado, more pics!

Sept 23rd was my sister's birthday, and Sept 24th was my Dad's. We had a little b-day celebration at my parents house ... and of course the kids were loved on like crazy. Here is Boots with her favorite Aunt Chrissy!

We keep getting notes coming home from daycare saying that we need to send in a family picture. And I keep forgetting! So we finally got a semi-nice shot. Damn Boots for not just looking at the camera!!!

Did I tell you all about my vampire child?? I can't remember ... I don't think I put it here. I went to daycare last week (or two weeks now) and when I was picking the kids up, there were accident reports for me to sign. I read Boots' first. It said "Boots was playing by the treehouse at 1045am with a friend when she leaned over and bit her friend. We taught her to use nice touches." Um, crap. Then I read Moops' report. "Moop was playing by the treehouse at 1045am with a friend when the friend leaned over and bit him. We taught his friend to use nice touches."

Ok, great. So Boots bit Moop! LOVELY! And the teacher wouldn't tell me! She just smiled and said they aren't allowed to tell who did what to whom. Well, it wasn't their teacher actually who said that, it was the director of the place. The teacher later told me that obviously it was Boots that bit Moop. I wasn't too stressed about it, as they are known to fight with each other. But then a few days later I got a report that she bit 3 (YES THREE!) kids at daycare. So then I was stressed!! I don't want to have that damn kid at daycare that is biting people! I talked with her teacher, and she said she is shadowing her, just watching really closely, to make sure she doesn't continue the behaviour. But she said she noticed a lot of drooling, and that Boots has new teeth coming in. So maybe she is having oral issues.

Thankfully, since the 3-bite day, she hasn't done it anymore. So now when I go to pick her up, I ask the teacher "How was my little vampire today?" They laugh at me. Thankfully, she seems to be over her short biting phase. Ugh.

On a happy note, they now say CHEESE! for the camera! Here is Boots and Moop yesterday practicing their new skills!

And just to show you that they have aced it, here's some from this morning!

And I had to include this picture, because it just made me laugh. Moop looks like he is auditioning to play Frankenstein, and Boots is auditioning for a vampire. These kids are nuts!

And lastly, I've been reading Twilight, and really enjoy it. Who doesn't love a good Vampire romance? Like mother, like daughter. Maybe she was looking for some good vampire tips? I hope it's not because of this book that she started biting at daycare!

Enjoy,
Caba

Good times ...

2008-09-17T19:16:00.005-05:00

Ok ... more catch up. I should probably try to update more frequently, huh? Our week was good. Friday night I hosted a jewelry party for Lia Sophia. My sister had one a few months ago, so I booked one. It was mellow, maybe there was 10 of us. I made a ridiculous amount of food for the number of people there, but that's just par for the course.

A few of the girls who came brought their husbands, and the guys all went out to a local bar while the girls chowed down and bought jewelry. Then the guys came back, the parents left, and we busted into playing Rock Band! I've mentioned my addiction, right?

Here are some fun pics of us rocking out ...

The kids started their music class Saturday morning. They seemed a bit hesitant when we first went in, but they LOVED playing with all the instruments. The teacher dumped a big bang of stuff on the floor. There were tambourines, drums, triangles, etc and Mr Moops eyes lit up and he took off like a bullet into the pile. It was really cute to watch them. We got some great cds and I think they are really going to enjoy the class.

Of course I have some adorable pics of them ... Here is a picture of the twins when Barney is on in our house. It's like they are hypnotized!

Here's Miss Boots playing on her chair. She stands up, I say "Sit down please". She sits. She stands. Repeat. Fun stuff at our house.

And I have to show this picture, just because it so captures Boots' Little Miss Trouble personality!

And just because he is cuter than words, here is Mr Moop, seriously holding onto Daddy's multivitamins.

Oh and here is one of Mommy's least favorite new games. It's called "Let's dangle our legs through the rungs in the railing!" You know I'm so picturing the whole thing breaking and the twins falling down to the first floor. Ugh!

Momma had a fun night out last night. We just finished a huge project at work, so our bosses took me and the other guy who worked on the project out for Happy Hour in the city at the end of the day. We went to Tao for our first drink and a few apps. Then we walked down to Tiffany on 5th Ave (have I mentioned that's the company I work for?) My friend Tom that I was with had me try on a $50,000 engagement ring that looked like this. I was nervous with it on my finger (and it only fit on my pinky.) Wow. Just wow. They make some GORGEOUS pieces. Then we headed over to Divine Bar. We had some drinks and tapas and it was a good time. DH took care of the kids, with the help of my sister. I got slightly drunk and took the train home.

Now I don't feel good. Seriously, how is it that I have one fun night out, and then I catch a cold? I stink. Working from home tomorrow will be a good thing!

Enjoy,
Caba

I know ... I stink.

2008-09-09T19:43:00.009-05:00

I've been really bad with updating lately. I'm not even sure why. Things have been hectic with work, with home, and I've been SO sucky at taking pictures. Which makes me feel awful! We took a million pictures earlier on, and I feel like such a slacker.

So what have we been up to, you ask? Lots of fun stuff. We had a nice Labor Day weekend last week. My parents took the kids overnight from Sunday to Monday. So DH and I had a nice night together, we went to the movies to see Tropic Thunder (so freakin' funny) and just slept late and reminisced about the days before kids when we could sleep if we want to.

This weekend was a good time too. Saturday we had the remnants of Hanna, so it just rained ALL DAY LONG! But earlier in the day before it started, we ran to the mall with Aunt Chrissy and Uncle Ant ... and got a few things, and all went out to lunch. Then we came home and the whole family napped, because it just got so dark out, and it was so cozy in bed. hehe.

We took a couple of really cute pics of Mr Moop playing in our bedroom. There new obsession (or maybe not that new) is the laundry basket. They climb in, they climb out. They fall all over the place and bonk heads and the Moop cries. It's a good time had by all!
Look how cute my man is...

Sunday was gorgeous! It was perfect weather, so we spent the majority of the day outside. The kids played in the yard while DH and I cleaned our cars, and turned their car seats around. Then after their nap, we went to the park with Aunt Chrissy. And this brings us to the cute pictures of our day at the park! We got some cute pics of the kids on the swings. It's hard for me to believe that last summer we took the swing picture with both of them in one swing. Now they are WAY too big!

After swinging, the kids played running around the play ground. Boots hung out with Aunt Chrissy and Mommy on the blanket and enjoyed her bubble machine. Mr Moop walked around pushing a pink stroller. Yes, it's Boots' stroller. Yes, he has a lawn mower to push. Yes, there are MANY fights over the pink stroller. And finally, yes, Mom and Dad did go back to Toys R Us and buy a SECOND pink stroller so that everybody could have one. Here Moop is enjoying his stroller. He's one serious dude.

Lady Boots on the other hand, didn't feel like pushing her pink stroller around, she was too busy running around and just being too adorable for words. Here she is in her short shorts making a somewhat disgusted face. She is probably sick of her mom chasing her with the stupid camera.

I had a funny conversation at the park with a little girl. We had our bubble machine with us, so this little boy and little girl (maybe 5 or 6 years old) came over to see the bubbles. And they were talking to us and the girl said to me "You have two babies?" and I said "Yes, they are twins. I have a girl (pointing the Boots, who was sitting with us) and a boy (pointing to Moop who Dad was off chasing)". And she said "Yeah, she is a girl because she is wearing girl shorts. He is wearing boy shorts". That made me laugh. With Mr Moops crazy hairdo, his shorts are the only thing that make people realize that he is a boy. Well guess what! I don't care! I'm not cutting his hair yet!

On a completely unrelated to my kids note, I belong to a website community for twins and twin parents. I spend entirely too much of my day there, seriously. Anyway, a woman with 8 month old twin boys lost her husband this weekend. He was 42 years old, and had a heart attack. It was awful. But here's the amazing thing. One of my friends on the site said she should send something like flowers ... and I offered to be the point person. So people could email me how much they wanted to contribute, and once we saw how much money we had, we would get something. These woman pledged $1400 + dollars! Can you believe that?? For someone they don't even know ... I am so proud of the community. It's such a small thing to do for someone else ... but for so many of us, it's our worst nightmare, losing our partner. I just can't even imagine. So it's been keeping me busy! I've been responding to emails, getting checks, accepting PayPal account transfers. It's amazing the anonymous generousity that has been shown. Anyway, I'm just proud ... so I thought I would share.

Enjoy,
Caba

Kids are hard, and cute pics!

2008-08-29T19:07:00.005-05:00

This age is really tough. I love them to death, I truly do. But it's HARD right now. They are just NON-STOP. They climb on everything. They now climb on the recliner, and just up and down. Seriously. Why must they do this? They want to knock over the tv. They want to walk around with Pam. And by that, I mean the cooking spray. Yes, the Pam is located in a pantry that they can open. So I have two cans of it in there. And they each need to carry one around. It's comical, really.

And Boots. My beautiful little girl. She is really messing with my sleep. She has decided that 530am is now an appropriate wake up time. But then she'll mix it up a bit. The other day it was 510am. Seriously? I almost cried. The first morning it happened, I just assumed that she woke up and would go back to sleep. But she didn't. She would alternate between crying, then singing, then silence. And repeat. I'm such a light sleeper that it kept me up the whole time. So, not a happy mom.

This morning when she woke me up, I tried something different. I went right in, picked her up, and took her into the spare room. We climbed into bed and I thought maybe since it was still dark, and I was with her, she would fall back asleep. I thought wrong. She was so happy, jumping around the bed. She was sitting next to me and pointing to my features saying "Eye, Nose". Then she would pat me on the arm and say "Hi Mama". She's too cute for words. But all I wanted to do was sleep. I'm happy to note that tomorrow is my sleep in morning. So my wonderful husband can take care of her while I sleep.

So, you came here for some pictures?? Well, I got some of them. Poor Moop has had a eczema issue forever. Mostly on his body, but every now and then he gets it on his face. And he has it around his eye. I have cream for it, but it looks so red. I hate it. Poor bubba. Although it doesn't seem to bother him. He's so cute. Lately he's been saying "Uh oh!" a lot. Probably because I'm always saying it. But it's funny, because he says it very exaggeratedly, making a very dramatic "O" with his mouth. Ain't he cute??

Here's a cute picture of Boots that I like. She was playing on our bed and being goofy and putting her feet in her mouth and trying to pull off her socks with her teeth. Lovely! I caught her in a goofy moment.

Here's a picture of a happy dude!

It's been so long since I've updated that I missed posting pics from my nephew John's first birthday. The kids had fun, and the food was super yummy! Here's a pic of Moop hanging with her Opa.

And I love this picture! This is the birthday boy pointing at Boots' nose. I'm not sure why he was, but they are both very serious about it!

Hope everyone has a nice relaxing holiday weekend. We are hoping to have some fun, and then ship the kids off to my parents for the night on Sunday night so that we can play Rock Band all night long and then sleep late.

Enjoy,
Caba

I'll be back, I promise!

2008-08-24T12:43:00.002-05:00

But seriously, it's SOOOO addicting! We bought Rock Star for Playstation this weekend. It's all I think about. I've sung Say it Ain't so by Weezer and In Bloom by Nirvana like 17,000 times. DH plays the guitar or drums, and I sing, well, because I like to sing. Although I did try the drums and it was super cool.

Playing catch up ... my sister had her surgery, and it went well and we are very happy. Thank you for all of your positive thoughts and vibes.

Our friends came over last night ... and once we put the kids down at 7pm, Rock Star came out ... and we played non-stop until like 1030pm when they left. It's some seriously addictive shit. I'm already ready to download like a million songs. Although they don't have a lot of chick rock songs. Although right before we turned it off last night we unlocked a few songs, one of them being Sabotage by the Beastie Boys, and I'm excited to rock that later tonight.

Seriously, this is going to be an issue for me. The kids will get ignored, I'll start leaving work early, coming home, not answering my phone, not showering... it could get ugly.

Oh well, but I'll be such a rock star it won't matter.

Ok, so maybe I'm just trying to live out a fantasy. Mom of twins is a far cry from a rock star.

Caba

Book Tour 14: Eat, Pray, Love

2008-08-19T19:25:00.002-05:00

Ok, we are back with another episode of the Barren Bitches Book Tour. This month, we read Eat, Pray, Love. I heard a lot of good about this book. I was excited to read it. Here is the truth, I didn't even finish it yet! I stink ... I started reading it too late.

The book is basically a memoir written by a woman who went through a nasty divorce. She was married, successful, owned a home, etc, and when she hit 30 and it was time to have a baby, decided she didn't want this life anymore. So she got divorced, and went on a journey. 4 months in Italy, to enjoy eating, 4 months in India to immerse herself in prayer, and 4 months in Indonesia. I made it through Italy and India. I'm only half way through Indonesia, but it's time to post, so I'll do my best.

One of the criticisms frequently leveled at this book is that it is "self-absorbed" and that its author is "selfish." Interestingly, these same labels have also been applied to infertiles, particularly those of us who blog about our infertility. Do you think this criticism is warranted in either case (i.e., by the book/author and by infertiles/infertility bloggers)? Do you think being an infertile and a blogger influenced your reaction to the book? In what ways?
Hmmm, is she selfish? I don't know. It's her memoir. It's all about her. Isn't that just kind of selfish by nature? I was thoroughly unable to relate to this person at all. First of all, I don't believe in God. So all the God talk was distracting, and I spent half the book rolling my eyes. Why is it that someone ALWAYS finds God when they are at their lowest point? I don't know if she was selfish. It's her life, and I truly believe that it is our most important journey in life to make our own selves happy. If I'm happy, my husband will be happier with me, it's just a cycle like that. I don't think she was selfish, I just couldn't relate to the life that she led.

Which of the three sections of the book -- Eat (Italy), Pray (India) or Love (Indonesia) -- could you most relate to & why?
Well, I didn't fully make it through Indonesia, but even if I had, I think it's Italy. First of all, I'm part Italian. Second of all, I LOVE LOVE LOVE to eat. So I would love a gluttonous 4 months in Italy just eating and doing whatever I want.

During her sojourn at the Ashram, Gilbert speaks of the fight with herself to find her meditative path. Personally, I have lost touch with the spiritual side of myself, so this kind of intrigues me. I wanted to know (if you are willing to share): How important is spirituality in your journey through if?
I wouldn't consider myself spiritual. I am not religious, do not believe in God. I am in awe of beauty in the world, looking around on a summer day, watching birds flying, seeing my children run around. Things like this move me. But my strength, my support, my power, they come from my loved ones. They come from my husband, my children, my siblings, my parents, my friends. These are the things that helped me through my IF battle. These are the people that wiped my tears, held my hand, and cradled my heart. For me, this is where I find my "spirituality". In the actually people that help me get through the tough times in my life.

Hop along to another stop on this blog tour by visiting the main list at Stirrup Queens (http://stirrup-queens.blogspot.com/). You can also sign up for the next book on this online book club: Baby Trail by Sinead Moriarty (with author participation).

A quick update ...

2008-08-14T19:04:00.002-05:00

It's not really my story to tell. So I'm not going to. But I've been a bit slow on the updating of this blog. I haven't had a lot to say. The kids are fine, and crazy as ever. Growing like weeds, and acting like troublemakers.

It's seems stupid sometimes to talk about all this superficial stuff when there is a lot more serious stuff going on. My sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. They caught it early, and she will be fine. But I'm mad. She's 36. She shouldn't be dealing with this.

But again, it's not my story to tell. I've just not been in the mood for telling fun stories of crazy twins when I'm kinda pissed off at life right now.

So, that's my quick update. I will be back soon with pics of silly twins and the like, but I just need to kinda put this out there and gather my own thoughts and feelings about it. Because sometimes life is just unfair. This is one of those times.

And please please please, I'm an atheist, don't leave me a comment about God or prayers or anything like that. Because probably it will just piss me off. I'm all for good thoughts and positive vibes though. So I'll take plenty of those!

Caba

Loving the Water!

2008-08-01T14:48:00.003-05:00

Hey all... Sorry I've been slacking. Work makes me tired.

Anyway, last weekend we went to my cousins for a BBQ, and I got some cute pics. My cousin Christina has a pool in her backyard and the twins love it! They are like little water bugs! Once you put them in the pool, they really do not want to come out. Here's a few pics of the cuties in the water. I love this picture of my dad and Miss Boots. It looks like he is telling her a secret, and she's got a little smile on her face like she's listening to him and he's telling her something funny.

And here a picture of the Moop hanging out with Daddy. I love this picture. And if you look close, you can see my DH's tattoo of my name on his arm. Isn't he tough?

The kids really enjoy the water. Bath time has turned into me and DH sitting in the middle of a tidal wave! They splash and laugh and splash some more, and it's just a freaking mess! I actually wore my bathing suit the other day for bath time.

So, thank goodness the weekend is upon us! Tonight will be a lazy night, tomorrow is my brother's birthday, so we are going out for some melted cheese! Yum! We are doing fondue at the Melting Pot and I can't wait because it is just SO yummy! My Mother in law is coming to watch the twins, so it can actually be a nice, relaxed and not super rushed dinner. Yeah for that!

So, I guess I don't really have that much to say. Have a great weekend!

Enjoy,
Caba

Come join us!!

2008-07-26T12:13:00.002-05:00

So, I thought I would share with you all a new parenting site that I have stumbled across and really like: ParentsCentral.net. I also belong to a twins only community, but this site is for parents with any number of kids. It's really cool. There are sections for those TTC, Expecting, the First ear, and then age groups going forward (1-4 years, etc).

It's a nice casual place to get information, ask questions (how do you get those kids to sleep through the night?), and just chat with people. Oh, and there are lots of places on the site to discuss things BESIDES kids. We can debate hot topics, chit chat about tv, talk about religion (or my lack there of) and just take a break from the hecticness of life.

So if you are looking for a fun and excepting online community, come over and sign up. The ladies (and few gents) are cool and you'll get lots of good advice. And for you twin mommies, there are actually quite a few people with twins on the site as well, so it's not like it's kids with singletons only. Because we know how different raising twins versus singles can be!

One of the owners/admins of the site is a friend of mine. We actually met on another site, and took our friendship to emailing, and then I found her site. So as a thank you for introducing me to a great community, I figured I would pay it forward, and tell all my readers about it.

Please go over and check it out. Only takes a second to register!
Caba

It's a whole different Vacation nowadays ...

2008-07-22T18:54:00.004-05:00

Wow. Vacations sure have changed. Every single year DH and I go with his family up to Lake George. DH has been going every year of his life, and his Dad has been going ever since he was a little kid. So it's a family tradition.

We missed going last year, the twins were only 3 months old, they weren't quite sleeping through the night, and I just couldn't fathom taking twins on vacation when I was still in the "I'm going to die" stage of parenting.

So this year was our first vacation with the kids. Well, it sure is something different. Lake George to me always meant days of total laziness. Waking whenever, swimming in the lake, lounging on a float for hours tanning, eating lunch, taking an afternoon nap, swimming some more, showering, yummy dinner, and either going out at night or relaxing at the cabin. Regardless, it was always a super lazy vacation.

Not any more ... hehe. Wow, kids are tough. We were still up at 630am or 7am every day. And then you aren't in your own house, so it's not baby-proof, and we spent a lot of time trying to get them to not touch stuff, to not stand on the fireplace hearth, to now yell, etc. It's tough. We were very strict about keeping them on schedule though. they still went down after lunch for their nap, and were taking GREAT ones, like 2-3 hours. I'm guessing the song just really knocked them out! They still went to bed at 7pm every night. So during their naps and after they went to bed we did get some down time. But they were just really long days. I don't know how you stay at home moms do it!

Hmmm, what else? Well, the Moop was sick for 24 hours on vacation. Diarrhea, and he threw up once. Lovely. Then the Boots got it the next day. Then our nephew Brandon got it. Then DH, then me. That was not fun. But we all bounced back pretty quickly, and it didn't put TOO much of a crimp into the fun.

Ok, so you want pics? I got pics!
Here are the twins playing in the lake!

Here they are getting swung around! The Boot by her Daddy, and Mr Moop by his Grammy!

Here the kids all cleaned up after a day at the beach. Love these outfits from fabulous Aunt Chrissy!

Here's a family pic taken on the deck of the house (which was BEAUTIFUL!)

Actually, click here to see the house. It really was so nice. One weird thing with the house, well, weird cool thing, all the trees had faces on them. I liked it. I thought it gave the yard "character".

And here is a cute picture taken once we came home. I don't know what Boots' deal is. She is the smilest kid ever, but when the camera comes up, she really goes all stone face on us!

I'll try to be better about updating. Things have been a bit crazy, and life is just too much to take sometimes. But pics of the twins will be a-coming!

Caba

Vacation

2008-07-14T21:34:00.004-05:00

I'm still here. Kind of. We are on vacation at Lake George. Pics and stories to follow. I promise.

Here are some pictures from 4th of July to tide you over! We went down to see my sister at her shore house. Much fun was had by all.

Hope everyone is doing well,
Caba

Book Tour: The Empty Picture Frame

2008-07-08T19:24:00.003-05:00

Ok, we are back with another episode of the Barren Bitches Book Tour. This month, we read The Empty Picture Frame by Jenna Currier Nadeau. This is another book about infertility. The book chronicled Jenna and her husband Mikes journey through the fun world of infertility.

So, Jenna is one of our fellow bloggers. I would link to her blog, but it's private. Anyway, I started following her journey probably about a year ago, and I am really excited to be talking about this book. I started following her blog at the tail end of her journey, so it was really interesting to go back and read how she got to where she currently is. Anyway, on to the questions ...

1. Depending on where you are on your IF journey, how did this book affect you? For example, if you have a child/ren after IF was it easier or harder to read? If you are in the middle of your IF struggle did the book help or hinder? Give me your thoughts on how you were affected reading the book no matter where your IF journey has taken you so far.

For me, this book was easy to read. When you aren't in the throws of your IF journey, or you have found your "happy ending" so to speak, I think its much easier to read about someone else. I think this book is just so honest. Anyone who has gone through any IF treatments have been told by some well meaning person about all the "friends of a friend" that got pregnant on their first dose of Chlomid, IUI, IVF or (insert IF treatment here). I think it's important for people to know that there isn't always a nice and easy happy IF ending. Some people don't end up pregnant. For some people, it doesn't work. I can see how this would be much harder for someone in the middle of their treatment to read, but I think it also helps to hear Jenna, this woman who just KNOWS she is meant to be a mom. And it doesn't matter how she gets there, she will. If there is one thing IF does to you, it forces you to really look inside yourself to find out how important being a mom is to you.

2. On p. 141, Jenna describes hiding out in the bathroom during her nephew's third birthday party but then realizes, "I couldn't even come close to having fun. I hate myself for that... I don't want to turn every moment into a moment about me and my sadness. It is never my intention, but it is always my impact." She describes how she doesn't like the person looking back at her in the mirror. Have you had a similar "mirror moment"? If so, describe it. Did this realization result in a lasting change in your outlook or relationships with others? How much of the responsibility for "impact" lies on the infertile person's shoulders?

I think I was lucky in that I didn't spend too much time in the pre-child infertile world. We were diagnosed and then really quickly went straight to IVF. We got our test results in Dec, I have a laproscopic surgery in May to close one of my tubes, and we did our first IVF in August, which results in the twins. Prior to seeing the RE, we probably spent about 8 months trying to get pregnant. But even in that super short time, the bitterness had set in. I still cringed at pregnancy announcements. I still cried when a month when by and the pregnancy test was negative. But I didn't get to a point as dark as Jenna did. And I don't blame her at all, I just blame time. Had I had multiple failed cycles, and multiple heart breaks, I would have been her. Actually, I would have been much worse. I wouldn't have attended places where kids would have been. I probably wouldn't have wanted to talk to anyone about their kids. And that is fully the fault of the infertile. Is it fair to ask other people to stop living their lives, to stop reproducing easily, to think before they ever speak to me? Of course not. But, oh of course there is a but, please go easy on my heart. Something like having a child, that comes SO easily to most women, it just doesn't come easy to everyone. And for those of us that are in the "other" group, it just sucks. So, although it's fully us that should learn to deal with everyone still going on with their lives, it would be nice for just a smidgen of understanding by all the happily fertile people that will never know the heartbreak of infertility.

3. On page 147, the author talks about being more aware of the pain of others. How do you feel your infertility has affected your relationship with others?

I like to think that my heart has gotten a little bigger. That I now realize that something that might come easily for me may not come easy for anyone else. I am SO cautious of my words when talking to other people who do not have children, as I'm so afraid that they are dealing with some sort of IF issue. And I'm becoming more much vocal and honest about our struggle. Because, ya know, it's really nothing to be ashamed of. So many people deal with it. And the more you get it out there, the more people talk about it, the more people won't feel so damn isolated while going through it.

As a side note, since I follow along on Jenna's blog, I love knowing that she did get her happy ending. She has adopted a BEAUTIFUL baby girl named Anna, and I think she has pretty much made all Jenna's dreams come true. It's been quite an honor to have followed along on her journey.

Hop along to another stop on this blog tour by visiting the main list at Stirrup Queens (http://stirrup-queens.blogspot.com/). You can also sign up for the next book on this online book club: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Catch up

2008-06-22T07:48:00.004-05:00

So, I haven't posted in a while. It seems like it has been a busy week. Let's go in order.

So, the Saturday before Father's Day, we took the kids back to the doctor, because the Boot had a high fever and had had one the day before at daycare. Since they were about a week off their ear infection meds, I was worried that it was back. Mr Moop seemed fine though, he was his normal jovial self, but I figured I would just take them both, to make sure that everyone was ok. Nothing stinks more than taking one to the doctor, only to have to take the other one like 2 days later.

Anyway, low and behold, Boots still had a double ear infection, and Moop still had a single ear infection, but the other ear was on it's way! So the dr said that she didn't think that it cleared up and came back, she thought that they didn't respond to their meds, so we put them on a different one. Aww, my poor babies with these ear infections!!

So that was our Saturday. Father's Day was busy, but nice. I got my DH a Play Station 3 and Grand Theft Auto. That was his birthday AND Father's Day gift. Then we went out to lunch with DH's whole family ... unfortunately Boots was still not herself, and didn't eat a thing. She started to warm up too, so we had to get her home. Note to self: No more taking the kids out smack dab in the middle of nap time when they aren't feeling well. We had hoped they would sleep in the car, but since they weren't feeling well, they didn't. Ugh. After we got home, we put Moop down for a nap, and he did fine. He went right to sleep. Boots on the other hand was just so overtired, and could not settle down. DH ended up rocking her to sleep and falling asleep with her in his arms. Which was beyond adorable.

Then my family came over for a BBQ. It's great to have them over, because DH and I can do everyone else, but we don't have to worry about the kids. My brother in law cooked, my sister and mom took care of the kids, and I just kinda did nothing! My parents gave DH a gift card to the movies, so we already told them to plan on babysitting soon so we can take advantage of it!

Once the kids got up from their naps, they were definitely in better spirits. Boots didn't want to be put down, so she was passed between the many people there. God it's nice to have extra sets of hands around!!

Being that Boots wasn't at her best, my mom took off work on Monday and stayed home with her. Moop still went into daycare, because he didn't have any kind of fever and was doing fine. Luckily the meds kicked in, so she was pretty much back to normal on Tuesday, and they've both been great ever since.

So, besides that, pretty uneventful week. I want to leave you with two funny pics.

We call Mr Moop the 5th Beatle. Can you guess why??

and DH entitled this picture "our Long Island Hairdresser".

I did inform Boots that as cute as this outfit looks on her ... it's only appropriate now ... and spandex leggings are NEVER appropriate as she gets older ... haha. I've also taught her that I do not approve of open-toed sandals without painted toe-nails, but I will let her get away with it for a little while longer ...

Enjoy,
Caba

Great Adventure

2008-06-17T19:30:00.004-05:00

Sometimes you just need a break, right? DH and I got one last week ... Last Thursday we both took the day off of work for a little adult only time. So what does a couple do when they still send the kids to daycare and want some adult time? They go to Great Adventure of course!!

My brother works at the amusement park as a security guard, and being that it was midweek, and school isn't out yet, it was a perfect day to go. Also, it was BEAUTIFUL out! It was like 85 degrees, but not super humid. Oh, it was just perfect.

I love roller coasters so our top priority was to run through the park and go on all of those first. We went on the Superman ride. This one is cool, cause once you get strapped into the car, it flips forward, so it's like you ride the ride flying ... it's really cool!

Then we went on El Toro. This was far and away our favorite! It's a new wooden roller coaster, and it's like psycho fast and super fun. There are all of these hills, and you are going so fast so when you come to the top of the hill, you fully rise out of your seat. DH loved the ride, but complained because he drank too much water before the ride, and then the attendant pushed the lap bar too tight ... he wasn't happy about that!

My brother was a security guard for the day at Kingda Ka. That is the fastest and tallest roller coaster on EARTH! Yes, on EARTH! The whole ride lasts something like 16 seconds. It propels you forward at 128 miles per hour, 456 feet (45 stories) straight up! Then you crest over the top, and go 456 straight down! We were really nervous, but we didn't even have time to have second thoughts. My brother literally just walked us through the exit and put us on the ride in front of all the people waiting. We didn't even have time to say "I'm not so sure about this!" ... haha .. It wasn't as scary as I thought, because it was over so quickly.

We went on a bunch of other roller coasters (Nitro, Medusa) and just kinda wandered around and ate a ton of yummy amusement park food. It was so nice. My wonderful sister was on baby duty, so she picked up the kids from daycare, brought them home, gave them dinner, bathed them, and got them off to bed. She really is the best Aunt EVER! She's a wonderful second mom to them!!

DH and I took our time coming home, we grabbed dinner, and we got home to a quiet house with sleeping twins. It was such a nice day for us. Ah, I need more days off like that in the future.

Although DH and I did laugh a bit while waiting on line saying "Ya know, we are PARENTS now ... should we really be going on roller coasters?" Haha ... the thoughts that go through a parents head, right?

Caba

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-14T20:47:00.003-05:00

Time to return the favor, so to speak. My wonderful, amazing, and perfect DH wrote me a lovely post on Mother's Day. And I would like to say a few words about how great he is now.

My DH is the love of my life, my best friend, my biggest supporter and my shoulder to lean on. He is AMAZING, and that word isn't nearly as strong as I want it to be. From the moment we met, sixteen years ago, there was a connection. We met in Calculus class. Yeah, we are dorks. There was just a connection there right away. And we became the absolute best of friends. Although we did try and date for about a month, it just wasn't the right time, so although the romance ended, the friendship remained. He was my sounding board through all my crazy college years. He knows every single horrible mistake I've made, all the crappy guys I dated, all the stupid things I did. He knows it all. Every last stupid decision. And he was just such a great supportive friend and always knew what to say to make me feel better about whatever mess I had recently created for myself.

And this relationship continues to this day. Yes, we obviously got back on track, and realized that we were each other's soulmates. But the friendship part, that's still so strong too. No one makes me laugh like he does. We have known each other 16 years, and we'll still lay in bed and laugh till we cry about the stupidest things. I still get excited to come home from work and see him ... and I always look forward to just being together. Yes, we fell in love, but we are still each others best friends. We talk about the silliest stuff every day, and joke around non-stop. We email each other all day long and talk about how much we miss each other (yes, we are so corny and sappy!)

It is such an amazing new side of him I get to see as a Dad. He's so great at it ... he's so natural and good with the kids. And they just adore him! I love seeing him cuddle with Boots, how much they look alike, and how she is just totally a daddy's girl. And it cracks me up to see him with the Moop, because I think they look NOTHING alike, but they are a match personality-wise. Both so sweet, easy going, always smiling and just even-keeled.

Once we fell in love, I always knew that it was forever. I knew that I was going to have the most amazing life with this man. It wasn't a question, it wasn't a maybe, it wasn't a "I hope it last forever". It was just a fact. One I knew then, and I know even more now.

Going through IVF for the twins was tough, but he was so wonderful by my side, and such a great support for me (as I hope I was for him) that it did bring us closer together, and make our relationship that much stronger. But having these kids, well, they made me love him even more. Watching him learn and grow into being a Dad. Watching him wake up after sleeping for no time at all to give ME a break! when he had to go to work the next day! Watching him pick up all the slack when I was thisclose to a nervous breakdown from lack of sleep. There are so many little things he does on a daily basis for me and the kids, they are too numerous to write.

So, I'm going to end this now saying Happy Father's Day babe. You are and always will be the love of my life. You are an amazing husband and father, and I truly know that I am the luckiest woman in the world. You make all of our lives amazing, and we are truly blessed to have you.

I love you.

A few questions answered ...

2008-06-11T19:52:00.002-05:00

Well, I didn't get a lot of questions ... but I will answer what I did get asked.

1. How did you really get your 4 months old children to sleep 12 hours? Was there any method that you used? Or sheer luck?
I did read that book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child. And I spend A LOT of time on http://www.twinstuff.com. Those ladies at TwinStuff know their stuff!! I got tons of good sleep advice there. But the most commonly heard thing was get them to bed EARLY! Do not keep them up thinking that they will be SO tired they sleep through. Everyone said between 630pm and 730pm is a good bedtime. So once they were down to 1 middle of the night wake up, we tried putting them down at 7pm. It was wonderful, because it gave me and DH our evenings back to ourselves. And shortly there after, no more middle of the night wake up calls!! And with the exception of a hand full of nights, they have not deviated from that schedule. So some method, but I also think my kids are just good sleepers, and I don't know if I can take credit for it completely.

2.OK ... let's talk about the election. Carol and I really don't like Hillary and hope Obama doesn't pick her for a running mate. We will both vote for Obama although, in our neighborhood, we are lone liberals in a sea of conservatives.
How about you two?
Ah, politics. Can I say that I'm not happy with either candidate? Or that I'm not happy with either party? Here is my issue. When it comes to certain issues, I am a Democrat. I am all for gay marriage, I am pro-choice, I am for the separation of church and state. Being an atheist, I don't want ANY decisions made for our country based on someone else's faith. Nothing scares me more than the idea of a bunch of crazy fundamental Christians in positions to start forcing their dogma on the rest of us! The thought of another Republican president over the next 4 years just sits so wrong. GWB screwed things up so royally, I need to vote for a Democrat just for a change. And Obama has promised us change!!

BUT, economically, I'm about as Republican as they come. I make my money, I want to keep my money. I do not want Universal Healthcare. I would like privatized social security. See how I can sound like a Republican?

Basically I want the government out of my bedroom, out of my wallet, out of my life as much as possible. So someone explained to me that what I actually am is a Libertarian. So, I will either vote Obama, or a 3rd party candidate that is better inline with some of my ideas. Sometimes I feel that a 3rd party vote is a throw-away vote, but then I realize if we want a change to occur, we have to voice our unhappiness with our crappy 2 party system.

So that's where I stand ... What about you all?

Caba

Drugs, the Mets, and Water Time!

2008-06-08T19:52:00.006-05:00

You all didn't ask me enough questions. I got one! ONE! About the election, that I do intend to answer ... but this is going to be one of those "What we did this weekend" posts ... tomorrow you will get the *election* post. So Mike, you'll have to wait!

Fun weekend here. First of all, I would like to say that me and DH are very proud of how wonderful our twins sleep. From 4.5 months on, they have slept from 7pm to 630/7am. It's great. But, do you want to know our secret?? We try not to share it with too many people ... but I'll share it with you all. Look how happy Hailey is to share our secret! Drugs, drugs, and more drugs!

Yes, Hailey is holding a bottle of Tylenol PM. Ok, you caught us. We don't REALLY give that to our kids. They love to shake bottles of pills. So yes, our children walk around shaking bottles of Tylenol PM, Men and Women's One-A-Day multivitamins, and Calcium. Good times in our house, people!

Saturday we went with Uncle Ant and Aunt Chrissy to the local IHOP (International House of Pancake). It was the grand opening weekend. It was PACKED! I personally am a bigger fan of just the local diner, but Ant and Chris are all about IHOP, so we all went. It was actually REALLY good. But we were waiting outside for our table, and there were people everywhere. And this car pulled up and asked this couple "Are you waiting to get in?" ... and after they drove away, Anthony said "I wish they had asked me, because I would have said 'Waiting to get in where?'" ... How stupid of a question right? I mean, no, we aren't waiting to get in, we just hang out in IHOP parking lots cause hey, it's fun! Stupid people ...

We dressed the kids in Mets gear for the IHOP trip because the Mets needed some luck this weekend. If these two can't bring it to them, nothing can!! I love this outfit that Boots is wearing. I was a cheerleader in school, and I hope that she follows in my footsteps.

So today (Sunday) was another disgustingly hot day in NJ. It was something like 95 degrees ... ugh. First DH and I went on a little date. We went out to lunch, to the library to get some books, and to Border to buy some stuff. I will tell you all about my books as I read them. We'll get to that later. I had a gift card to Borders from my birthday, so we bought Cloverfield and Jesus Christ Superstar. God, I love musicals. Anyway, we came home right as nap time was ending, and we decided to bring the kids outside and let them play with all their water toys. They got a bunch for their birthday and we wanted to see how they would do. They were SOOOO cute. It was way too much fun to watch them ... and boy did they look adorable in their swimsuits. Here, check it out for yourself. You really can't deny their overall adorableness. There were too many cute pics for me to choose from to actually put on the blog. You really need to click on the pics and look at them all. Because OH MY GOD, are my kids cute.

On that note, its time for me to relax a little bit. I am going to discuss my take on the election in the next day or two, but I want more questions!!

Enjoy,
Caba

Q & A Time ...

2008-06-05T20:20:00.004-05:00

So many others are doing this for National Comment Leaving Month, so I'm jumping on the bandwagon. Go ahead, ask me a question. It can be about the babies (of course) but don't limit it to that ... you can ask me about ... the meaning of life ... who's going to be the next president ... anything you want. And I will answer as honestly as I can. Unless you ask me for my social security number. Then I will lie.

Yeah, I guess I don't really have much else to say besides that today. It's been a long day. Hailey is teething (I'm guessing) because she is suddenly drooling like a faucet, and crying WAY too much. So because of all this, she was up a lot last night ... between 1145pm and 130am she woke me up like 4 times. I forgot how much the sleep deprivation SUCKS with a newborn. I've definitely forgotten or blocked out that time ... so the interruption in my sleep last night killed me! Then I had to get up extra early to get the kids to daycare as DH, stands for Dear Husband or D*ck Head if he is being a pain in the ass (just kidding, babe!), had to go get his car inspected. I had an appt with my surgeon this morning to follow up after my surgery, and everything looked good. But because of all these appts, I was up way too early. So I'm tired. Which means this post is over, and off to bed I go!

Enjoy,
Caba

Fun Weekend

2008-06-02T20:02:00.005-05:00

Blog changes ahead ... click here for details. I need emails from anyone wishing to still read along ... (this will be at the top of all new posts until the change goes into effect)

First off, I would like to discuss new names for the twins. In an effort to be a bit less "out there" with all our info (names, address, social security #s) I am going to be using nicknames for the kids. Our little lady has been called Boots since she was born. I have NO IDEA why. I think my mom started it. But it has nothing to do with Dora the Explorer. But that being said, she is Boots, Bootsy, Lady Boots, etc. And from now on, she will be referenced as Boots on this site.

My man has a million nicknames. He is often called Bubba so I considered using that on this site. My sister called him Butterball when he was a baby, which morphed into Butters (um, South Park anyone??) and then turned into McButters since Chrissy is a Grey's Anatomy fan. She even bought him a onesie that says "Who needs McDreamy when you can have McButters?" ... but most recently hubbie and I have been calling him "the Moop". I'm not really sure why. He just looks like a Moop. He's chubby, and he walks around like a drunken sailor. So, he is the Moop. She is Boots. Going forward, they will be called these names only (or variations of these names, Mr Moop, Lady Boots, etc). Have I confused you yet??

We had a very nice weekend ... Friday night my sister had a jewelry party. There weren't a ton of people there, but we ate some yummy food and I ordered some pretty pieces. I offered to have a party in September, so I can save up some money to spend some more. hehe.

Saturday started out as it always does. Aunt Chrissy and Uncle Anthony arrived nice and early with Dunkin' Donuts in hand for the parents and the kiddies. They get so excited when see her with the DD bags ... and she always brings them munckins to eat. We spent some time on the Thomas the Train that Aunt Chrissy bought them for their birthday. Did I mention that my sister non-stop buys these kids things?? Here is a few pics of the train ... Did I mention I am running out of rooms in my house to put these kids toys? Here's a pic of the whole train with the track.

Here is the Moop riding his train ...

And the Boot giving what we refer to as the "Stink Eye"...

Saturday afternoon we went to our friends house. These are our best friends that we did our big cookie baking extravaganza with over Christmas. Their son Kai is like 6 weeks younger than the twins. They also have a beautiful daughter Ali (we are her GodParents) who will be 6 in July!! It was such a nice time catching up and getting all the kids together. We did attempt to get a group kid shot. It was ... um ... interesting. At one point Kai leaned over playing with his sister, and him and the Moop bonked heads. Well, Mr Moop LOST IT! He just wouldnt stop crying ... here is the evidence!

On Sunday me and the hubbie went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. I really liked it. It was no Iron Man, which I LOVED, but it was still fun and a good time. I LOVE going to the movies. We don't get to go nearly as much as we did pre-twins. Ah, those were the days of sleeping late and doing what we wanted ... those days will be back... in 18 years.

Enjoy,
Caba

About me...

2008-05-31T20:03:00.003-05:00

First of all ... blog changes ahead ... click here for details. I need emails from anyone wishing to still read along ... (this will be at the top of all new posts until the change goes into effect)

So, since a lot of new people are dropping by due to NaComLeavMon, I stole this idea from KimboSue. Just a little bit about me ...

A - Attached or Single: Attached
B - Best Friend(s): My husband, Chrissy
C - Cake or Pie: Cake
D - Day of Choice: Saturday
E - Essential Item: Laptop
F - Favorite Color(s): Purple
G - Gummy Bears or Worms: Bears, yum!
H - Hometown: Berkeley Heights, NJ (Where I grew up, not where I currently live)
I - Indulgence(s): come on, I'm a girl, SHOES!
J - January or July: July
K - Kids: 2, Miss Boots and Mr Butters (aka Little Miss Trouble and Mr Silly)
L - Life is incomplete without: my family
M - Marriage Date: 12/5/2003
N - Number of Siblings: 1 older sister, 1 younger bro
O - Oranges or Apples: Oranges
P - Phobias or Fears: Claustrophobia
Q - Quote: "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." – Bertrand Russell
R - Ring size: 8
S - Season: Fall
T - Tag 3 Friends: No
U - Unknown fact about me: If I tell you, it won't be unknown ...
V - Very favorite stores: Babies R Us, Old Navy, Amazon.com
W - Worst Habit: Reality TV!
X-ray or Ultrasound: I guess Ultrasound? I had a billion of them during pregnancy
Y - Your Favorite Food(s): Italian, Sushi, Mexican
Z - Zodiac: Pisces

Enjoy,
Caba

Hmmm... Blog changes ahead ...

2008-05-29T14:32:00.003-05:00

I'm sure you can already see this ... as I changed the name of the blog. I think it's kinda stupid of me to have our full names on my blog. I mean, this is the big bad internet, and it's probably a little foolish. So I think I am going to take our names off ...

Problem is, our name is in the URL. I can change it, but you all are going to lose your bookmarks. So, here is what you have to do. Send me an email: caba.mom@gmail.com if you want to continue to read this blog. I will then send out a mass email with the new url. It is still going to be public, but I'm just getting less comfortable with our name out there.

I'm going to give my change to Mel, so hopefully she will put it in the Lost and Found in case you lose me. I probably won't do it for another week or so, to give people the time to email me ... Plus, I'll keep my blogroll, and continue commenting on all your blogs, so you'll eventually find a link back.

I know it's a bit annoying, but thanks for making the transition with us!

And I'm going to start using my nickname that was given to me a LONG time ago ... Caba.

So enjoy the changes,
Caba

NaComLeavMo and the Holiday Weekend

2008-05-28T19:44:00.007-05:00

NaComLeavMo!! This stands for National Comment Leaving Month! It started over the holiday weekend, and it's just loads of fun! Bottom line is, blogging is fun, but getting comments is funner! From May 25th - June 25th I have to leave 5 comments a day on blogs that I do not usually read ... There is a list of blogs involved if you click the link above. I also have to return one comment a day to a new person that comments on my blog! Loads of fun I tell you! And even more interesting is that non-IF blogs are involved, so it's a way to start reading about some stuff that isn't all infertilty and pregnancy and babies.

At the same time, this a call to yell at you lurkers. Come say hi! All you need to do is click on the comments link below and let me know you are reading. I KNOW my family is out there reading and not even saying hi. You don't even need an account or anything!

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Ok, now on to what's been going on ... I'm much better after my surgery, thank you for all the well wishes. Sadly, I only have 4 percocet left, and I am saving them. For what, I have no idea. But they are like little pills of wonderfulness, and I am sure one day I will have back pain that will warrant their use.

So I have multiple weekends to cover! Last weekend we went down to Eric's sister's house to celebrate both his mom and his sister's birthdays. She has two kids, Brandon and Allie, and the twins had a blast with them! They loved to follow them around and attempt to do things that they did.

Hailey is currently in this stage where she wants to sit on EVERYTHING! She is constantly walking backwards and trying to sit on anything ... people, toys, even soccer balls! She's such a goof ...

Here's Jake playing in Lori's backyard ... He looks like he is very annoyed by us ...

And since I mentioned Hailey's desire to sit on EVERYTHING, my sister bought the twins chairs. They are too cute! Hailey's is purple and has a Dora the Explorer picture on it ... Jake's is green and is the Backyardigans. They just LOVE them ... they'll be running around the room, and suddenly just go over to their chairs and sit in them and take a break. Look how cute!

Oh and want to hear also how wonderful Aunt Chrissy is?? She bought them this adorable wagon for their birthday! We finally got them to the park this beautiful Memorial Day weekend, and they loved being pulled around in it! We put them in the wagon at opposite ends with some toys between them ...

but Hailey didn't like being that far from her brother ... so she ended up like this ...

Then Eric took these beautiful pictures of the twins at the park ... I just love them ... I think my kids are just beyond beautiful.

And on one final happy note (dripping with sarcasm), the twins have ear infections. They've both been sniffly and coughing all weekend, and had slight fevers, which I thought was due to all the teeth coming in. We ended up taking them to the doctor tonight, since they both had slight fevers at daycare today. Hailey's got a double ear infection, Jake has a single. At least they got started on their meds.

That's all for tonight. I have so much to type, but I'll save it for another day.

Oh, and LEAVE A COMMENT!!!

Enjoy,
Erica

Ain't no stopping us now, we're on the MOVE!

2008-05-16T10:25:00.006-05:00

First, I have to say, I got the best husband around. Thanks babe. Love you!

So, we were watching American Idol the other night, and the final three contestants were singing that song "Ain't no stoppin' us now, we're on the move!" and I just looked at Eric and said "I think this is Jake and Hailey's theme song!". hehe. These kids are running us ragged!

Let's catch up. Last weekend was busy. Saturday my friend Michele's little boy Michael turned 1! Michele and I have navigated this whole new motherhood thing together, so it was really nice to celebrate with them! And I think Michael and Hailey were flirting! I told Michele she needs to keep her son in line, he tried to grab Hailey's hand! He's a bit forward!

Here's a pic of the adorable birthday boy eating his cake!

The twins looked super cute dressed for Michael's party. They look just so GROWN UP to me ... Don't you agree?

Then Sunday was Mother's Day. We had such a lovely Mother's Day! Eric bought me a gift certificate for a massage to the spa I go to. And the kids bought me an FM Transmittor so I can listen to my IPod in my car. How did they know I wanted that?? Smart, aren't they? After getting my gifts, my wonderful husband showed me my last Mother's Day gift, the beautiful post he wrote! Boy did that make me cry! Then the four of us went to the diner for breakfast. It was really nice to get out just with my family. After breakfast we put the twins down for their nap while I relaxed, and then we all went to my mom's house for dinner. My mom made yummy meatballs and sausage and pasta and we ate like kings. And really, can we have an italian meal without me including pictures? Certainly not!

Grandma also got a very cool horsey that the kids LOVE for a steal at a garage sale! Let's just say, it's a big hit!

So what else? Oh yeah, I had surgery on Monday. Nothing too serious ... just a diagnostic laparoscopy for my surgeon to go in and look around and make sure nothing was going on in there. I've been having some bizarre stomach pains, even all through my pregnancy, and since we did a million tests to rule out everything else, the surgeon wanted to go in and see what was up. Being that I had gastric bypass, they worry about hernias, as well as these pockets that can form that your intestines can get twisted in. Crazy stuff. Either way, he did find some tiny pockets and closed them up, but otherwise all looked good! So yeah for that!

I have been enjoying my percocet, but it's been a tough week. I've been in a decent amount of pain, and I haven't been allowed to pick up the kids, so my wonderful husband has really really picked up the slack around the house. Well, picked up the slack doesn't make sense, he's pretty much done EVERYTHING! I am so thankful for him! I've been home from work all week just lounging around and resting, so that's been fun, but it's also why I have been a bit of a slacker posting and commenting. I do want to say Happy Belated Birthday to Kai, the son of our best friends Chris and Megan, who turned 1 on May 14th. Also Happy Birthday to Hannah, my blogger friend Aimee's daugther, who also turned 1 the same day!

I guess that's it for now!
Enjoy,
Erica

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-10T22:29:00.008-05:00

The husband speaks (types)! Long live the mighty husband! I want to start out by wishing a Happy Mother’s Day to all of you Moms out there. Take a day off, you deserve it. I’m actually massaging my wife’s feet as I type this. It is a tough combo to pull off, but any husband of level 5 quality or higher (I’m currently at level 20, which is unattainable to most normal human men) should be able to manage. Look for my book “Husband Rating System for Dummies” this fall. So don’t be shy, ask for what you want, you’ve earned it.

I played Mr. Mom last December and took the whole month off to stay home with the kids before daycare started. It was such a great month. Don’t get me wrong, it was a ton of work, but work with great reward. I was secretly hoping it would be a little unbearable so I would actually look forward to going back to work. No such luck; I was incredibly depressed to go back. I got to see Hailey learn how to crawl. I taught Jake how much fun “peekaboo” is. In general, I just got to stay in my pajamas with the kids and roll them around and have fun while we waited for Mama to bring home the bacon! So now I’m back at work, just one of a billion working people, while our kids are in daycare.

I wanted to also take this space to discuss nicknames. I realized the other day that besides “Jake” and “Hailey”, our kids have at least 20 other names. It must be confusing to them during their formative years. I’m sure they will find a way to use this to blame us for something when they are in their teens. “Well Dad, I got a nose ring because I had 20 names when I was one year old! Do you know how confusing that was?!?” Here now, without further delay, is our list of nicknames for our kids, which is constantly growing:

Jake
--Jakey
--Jakers
--Bubba
--Buddy Boy
--JJ
--J-Bone
--Dude
--Mister Dude
--Number One Dude
--Little Buddy
--Mr. Hairdo
--Doctor Teeth
--Clumsy Jones
--Stinky Jones
--Big Man
--Mister Man
--Butters
--Mister McButters
--Mister Magoop
--Mister Magump
--Moop
--Jake Christopher (when he's in trouble)

Hailey
--Boots
--The Boot
--That Boot
--Dat Boot
--La Boot
--Lady McBoots
--Bootsy McGillicutty
--Bootsy McGee
--Bootsy Malloy
--Little Lady Boots
--BooBoo
--Peanut
--Sweet Pea
--Sweet Feet
--Little Lady
--Hailey Rose (when she's in trouble)
--Little Miss Rose
--Little Missy
--HR (Hailey Rose for short)

As for my wife, I thought I would say a little something about her since she has been such a positive force in my life, and really my exact equal in life and partnership. Erica is known around our house as “Mama”. The kids can kind of say it, but they definitely know who their Mama is. No matter what they are doing, or what mood they are in, as soon as they hear her voice, they turn their heads to the door waiting for her to walk in. Once she appears in the door, they break into huge smiles and even start laughing sometimes just before they are barraged with hugs and kisses. They are lucky, and they know it, because no kids on earth could have gotten a better Mama than our kids have. She sings to them all the time, and it always calms them down or makes them smile. When they are cranky (and yes, they are cranky quite a bit) she always knows just what to do to make them happy again. It has been such a pleasure for me to watch her in her role and how easily she has handled it. I already knew what a great person and what a great wife she was, and I knew she would be a great mother too; it’s just nice to actually see it on a daily basis. I said above that our kids are lucky to have her as their Mama, but I’m even luckier to have her as my wife. I always tell her she’s my favorite, and she is. She always will be.

Happy Mother’s Day, Erica. I Love You.

Have I lost my mind?

2008-05-04T13:10:00.008-05:00

Wanna hear something crazy I said the other day? I was talking to a friend who asked if I was considering ever having any more kids. And ya know what I said?? I said I would LOVE more kids ... but more specifically, I would LOVE another set of twins. Am I nuts? I just might be... Now, this was all prefaced by saying that I would need to suddenly be a millionaire. Because I can't afford to have another set of twins. Daycare would KILL us! And since I couldn't afford to stay at home with them, there really would be no way. But let's PRETEND that we did hit the lottery ...

I wouldn't want just 1 more. I love the connection that I see growing between Jake and Hailey. The way I find them giggling and holding hands over their cribs in the morning. That's just the coolest thing. And I would hate to have one more, that maybe felt a little bit left out, because their older siblings are twins. That's why I think it would be so awesome to have another set! I know we could handle it, we definitely have the room for it. But we just don't have the finances for it. And that kinda stinks. I hate the thought of my family size being dictated by the amount of money I have. So blech to that!

How is the family, you ask? Healthy. Woo hoo! Love healthy kids! They've been in spectacular spirits, and that makes for a good time for all. And they are crazy walkers now. Hailey prefers to walk, she rarely crawls anymore at all. And Jake is right behind her ... he is walking so much better these days! I love it. It's amazing how they went from teeny tiny babies, to these little people!

I'm tired, and I don't have a lot to say. I think I might try doing one of those "100 interesting facts about me" group of posts. We'll see if I get my sh*t together and do it.

Anyway, my sister told me that she dislikes when I put up posts without baby pictures, so because we NEVER want to annoy Aunt Chrissy, here ya go!

I am obsessed with baby feet. Whenever Jake eats in his high chair, he crosses his feet really cute. So here's a pic of that!

Jake has the cutest curls! I had them as a baby, so did my brother. We don't still have curly hair, just for a little bit as babies, and then it never grew back after our first hair cut. So although tons of people think I should cut Jake's hair, I just can't do it! I'm afraid that once I do, he'll look like a little boy. And I'm just not ready for that! Look at these cute curls!

Aunt Carol and Uncle Mike gave the twins an adorable table and chair set for their birtheday. They look so cute at it! We always sit them there for snack time and they eat their milk and crackers. Here is a pick of them playing at their table.

The kids love Italian food, which my mom loves (being that she is Italian). But Hailey has started doing this thing where she eats her food, but then rubs her hands all over her face and hair while eating Italian food. This is the end result. It's not pretty! Suffice it to say, we only serve Italian food on bath night!

And last, but not least, I bought Hailey a tutu. It's the cutest thing. She is going to be a prima ballerina one day!! She loves to dance when the music is on. Can't wait till I can get her into dance class!

Enjoy,
Erica

I've been tagged...

2008-04-26T19:03:00.003-05:00

Oh, I'm so slow. Melissa at Twincredible Twosome tagged me like FOREVER ago, but with the birthday party, and then all the illnesses, I never did what I was supposed to do! So now I'm going to do it!

Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Well, here we go ... 7 facts about me.

1. I am an atheist. I was raised Roman Catholic, was baptised, made my communion, my confirmation, was married in a Catholic Church and even baptised my kids Catholic (this was more for my mom than anything else). All that being said, I do NOT planning on raising my kids Roman Catholic. I do not believe in God, or in any type of organized religion. That being said, to each his own. I have no issue with anyone being religious or having a strong faith, as long as it's not imposed on me.

2. I LOVE to sing karaoke. Seriously, it's like my favorite thing to do. And I haven't done it in a REALLY long time. For my 30th birthday we rented out a room at a karaoke bar in NYC, where we had our own room, and our own karaoke machine and it was just the funnest thing ever. I was a bit of a singing hog, I didn't want to let anyone else have a turn, but hey, I was my birthday! Eric even bought me my own karaoke machine for christmas one year. Yes, I do sing in the house when I'm by myself. I love to sing, I was in musicals all through high school. I would LOVE to do community theater ... maybe when the kids get older.

3. I had gastric bypass surgery in June, 2001. I have lost a total of 185 lbs, and haven't gained a pound back. I'm pretty proud of that!

4. I have been watching Days of our Lives since I was in elementary school. When I was that young, I would watch it during the summers only. Once I got into high school, I started recording it. And I still watch it every single day. Our DVR is full of them as we speak. I LOVE it. I feel like I know all the characters so well since I have been watching them for YEARS!

5. I had fake hair on my wedding day. I have always dreamed of having long luxurious hair. I even brought the woman who was doing my hair a picture of Vanessa Marcil when she was on General Hospital (another soap I watch!) getting married to Jax and said "This is what I want my hair to look like!". She took one look at my hair and was like "Yeah, um, this isn't going to happen!". BUT she told me that we could buy extensions, and match my hair color, and they would clip in, not be sewn in, so I could take them out that night. But they would be real human hair, so that you could style and curl it and what not. It was $400 to buy the hair I needed, but I LOVED the outcome! (See wedding pic).

6. I am obsessed with Charles Manson. Not in a "wow, he's cool way" but in a "He's SUCH a psycho way!". I have read Helter Skelter a million times and I'm just so interested in the story. I have read tons of books on the crazy family members, and I just find the whole topic super interesting. I heard they were making a movie about the Manson Girls starring Lindsay Lohan. I don't know how I feel about that. On a side note, I also watched Another World (the soap) until it went off the air. Lindsay Lohan was on it as a young girl. She was cute then. Now she's crazy.

7. I like to write. Not for anyone else, but just for me. I used to write plays a lot when I was a kid. I'm not kidding. My sister still makes fun of me for it to this day. She said when she was out partying as a teenager, I was staying home reading books and writing plays. Which is not exactly true! But, I did write a few plays. The last one I started was in like 1998 and was almost 70 pages when I just stopped writing it.

Alright. That's it. Now I have to tag 7 people.
I'm tagging Gemini Girl, Topcat, My June Bug Babe,The Mama Wannabe,Sean and Mary's Family,
Edit Claire and Ella Grace, and It Only Take One Egg.

Enjoy,
Erica

And we are back ...

2008-04-20T19:20:00.003-05:00

Ok, I know it's been a while. But I am happy to say that we are all healthy again. Things have been a bit crazy, so this will be a long update!

I'll start with the oldest stuff first. We are Mets fans in this house. I am/was a Red Sox fan, but it's too confusing to raise the kids as a combination of both, so they will be raised Mets fans. Really, it's much easier, given that we are so much closer to NY than Boston. Either way though, our children will be raised to hate the yankees. In the kids Easter baskets I had a Mets outfit for each of them. They are super cute. My husband is very excited about his little Mets fans. So here you go with some cute pics!! Many more pics if you click on either one!

So what else? I wasn't allowed to write about this on the blog until now, but we had a super fun 40th birthday party for my brother-in-law last weekend. My sister threw the whole thing, it was at this super fun brewery in NYC, and it was just a blast. My sister wanted to do a presentation for him, kind of a "This is your life" type of thing. We worked on it NON-STOP for like a month prior to the party! I must say, it was a super great success. My sister really knows how to throw a party! It had a whole casino thing going on, so there were craps tables, a roulette table, and a few poker tables. She had "funny money" made up with Anthony's face on it... which was hysterical. And look how cool this stand-up was that she had made! It really looks just like him!

What else? Jake got hurt at daycare! Ugh. It was so sucky. I was driving to pick them up from daycare on Thursday and my cell phone rang. It was the kids daycare. The director told me that Jake was trying to walk, and he tripped and fell onto a shelf that had toys on it, and he hit his face on the corner of the shelf. He got a huge cut to the side of his eye, and it was bleeding really bad. She said that they had stopped the bleeding, but it was bad enough that I should probably bring him to the pedi to see if he needed stitches. Ugh! I was so sad for him! Lucky for me, when I got to daycare, he was just laying in the area where they change diapers, and he was all smiling and happy to see me. They cleaned him up and put a band-aid on, and he seemed to be in good spirits. We brought him to the pedi that night, and thankfully he didn't need stitches. They actually glued the cut shut. How crazy is that?? Here is my bubba now.

So finally, we took the kids to the park yesterday to enjoy the nice weather and have some fun on the swings with Aunt Chrissy and Uncle Ant. The kids really enjoyed the swings! But they weren't HUGE fans of the grass. Hailey didn't like the feel of it and she would cry if she crawled or walked into it. She's such a prima donna.

And now I am ready for bed. I hate when the weekend is over. Ugh.

Enjoy,
Erica

The Party of the Century (and we are all sick, AGAIN!)

2008-04-08T18:45:00.004-05:00

It's over. We survived the first birthday party of the twins. I think a better idea would have been to send the twins out with the grandparents, and for Eric and I to get some much needed sleep! But that was not to be.

I want to get this post up so bad, but I'm SO SICK! I have no idea what happened. I woke up this morning with the worst sore throat and my whole head is just pounding and will not stop. Ugh. I wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow. But staying home would be no fun, as Jake is sick as well. Daycare called today, and he's got a lovely 101.6 fever. So I had to pick him up. It was fine, because I was leaving early to pick them both up anyway, since they had their 1 year appt today. Jake still had a fever, but no ear infections, so the dr said it's just some sort of virus that will work its way out. Hailey on the other hand, had a double ear infection! And she was acting relatively normal, no fever on her or anything. So she's back on meds. She can go to daycare tomorrow, but Jake can't. Did I mention how much it sucks to be sick when the kids are sick? Yeah, it does. Ok, I'll give you the quick one year stats, and then back to the party. Jake weighs in at 25.1 lbs (up 1 lb from 9 months), putting him in the 85th percentile. He was 32 inches, which was 97% for height. I forget what his head was, but it was like 50%.

Hailey only gained 11 ounces from 9 months, she is now 18.13 lbs, which is the 16% (my little peanut!). She was 30.5 inches, and I honestly can't rmeember the % on that right now. And her head was 40%.

They are doing good. No shots today since they both were sick. I'm thinking about slowing down and spacing out their shots more, but I'll save that for a later post.

Anyways, back to the party! It was so lovely. Almost everyone we invited was able to make it, and it was so fun to see all the different friends in our lives who have had babies in the past year together! It was a mess of infants just crawling and walking around.

Ok, so a little aside. I was feeling so crappy last night that I saved my post at this point, and just went to bed. Now I'm trying to finish it up. I went to the doctor today and found out that I ALSO have an ear infection!?!?!?! What am I? A baby? Ugh. So now both me and Hailey are on antibiotics. Fun times, friends, fun times.

ANYWAY, back to the party! It really was fun. We had lots of food, and a beautiful cake, and all our friends and family, and it was just a good time! Both kids were a bit crabby, which now makes sense, knowing they are both sick!

Here is the birthday girl with Grandma.

And here is the birthday boy with his Uncle Anthony.

And I just wanted to show off the cute banners I got for them!

Lots more pics if you click on any of the above ... I'm going to go take an antibiotic and go to sleep. Ugh. I was tagged, and I will get back to that soon as well! Now I must sleep.

Erica

Oh My Gosh!

2008-04-05T07:12:00.003-05:00

Do you see that ticker??? Look up, see it?? Do you see what I see? My babies, those tiny little babies that were born at 5.5 lbs and 5 lbs are ONE YEAR OLD TODAY! Holy crap, where did the time go??

I think they know it's there birthday. I think they really wanted to remind us of how far they've come. Because Hailey decided to wake up and cry like 4 times last night ... crying so hard I had to go in and get her and rock her back to sleep. She seems fine now ... I think it was just her way of saying "Hey Mom, remember when we used to get up together every night like every 3 or 4 hours! Those were good times, Mom"... hehe.

There is so much to say about the emotioms that I'm feeling today that I don't even know where to begin. This year has far and away been the most amazing year of my life. Watching these two little lives, from the minute they entered the world to these two little TODDLERS that are walking (Hailey) and almost walking (Jake) has just truly blown my mind!

To my sweet gentleman Jake-
On your first birthday, I just want to tell you how much I am in love with you. You are the sweetest little boy I have ever seen in my life! We tease you and say you are Mr Sensitive. If you fall down, hit your head the slightest bit, if Hailey takes your toy, if the littlest thing happens, you cry. I think you know it's because Mom and Dad will run right over and give you hugs!! But besides your few sensitive moments, you are the happiest baby. You have the biggest smile, showing off all those teeth, and you are a super flirt. You love to be held and cuddled, and you like when we play the "Don't drop the baby!" game. (Please don't contact DYFUS. All I do is hold him in my arms and say "Don't drop the baby" and then PRETEND I'm going to drop him and hold him upside down!!) You love this game and giggle like crazy when we play it. You crawl around like a crazy man, and still love your binky when you are falling asleep. You love to be undressed, and love to rub your feet on the floor. You have a smile that lights up a room, and there is nothing that warms my heart like hearing you say over and over again "Momma Momma Momma". Happy First Birthday my sweet son. You are the most perfect little man I could have ever asked for.
Love Mommy

To my pretty princess Hailey
On your birthday, I want to tell you how much I love you, and how you are an angel in my eyes. You are just the little girl of my dreams. You scare me, because it's like seeing myself in a babies body! Although you look just like Daddy, you have my personality. You are as happy as could be, and smile ALL THE TIME! You always have a little coy look on your face like you are up to no good! You are a lightening quick crawler, and I think will be the same way with the walking thing! You are very strong willed, and chase down everything you want. I love how you will crawl or walk over to me or Dad really quick, and then spin and drop into our laps to just hang out with us for a bit! It's just too cute. You can be a bit of a troublemaker (hehe) and you do like to steal anything that your big bro is playing with. Then you dangle it in front of him to see if he'll play tug of war with you. Jake doesn't love it, but it makes me and Dad laugh every time! You LOVE music. As soon as we turn on any music (You did enjoy the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack) you start to move. You bouncy around and sway from side to side. It could be my favorite thing to see you do! You are just a joy to be around, and make Daddy and I happy every single day! Happy First Birthday my angel!
Love Mommy

There is so much more I could say. I love these kids more than I thought possible. Now I've got to get up and finish the party plans. Tomorrow we are having the big first birthday party. So on Monday you will be treated to lots of pictures of this very special day!

Enjoy,

Erica

March of Dimes, March for Babies

2008-03-29T07:40:00.004-05:00

I know that I got lucky with my twins. They were born at 36w3d, no NICU time. I fully expected them to have to spend time in the NICU, but they didn't. And for that I am eternally grateful.

But a lot of moms are not so lucky. A lot of moms have to deal with their new babies spending days, weeks, months in the NICU. And it's not just the loss of that "perfect experience" of giving birth, spending time with the babies and all coming home together 2-4 days later. It's the scares that go along with the NICU. The highs and lows. The one step forward, two steps back that they deal with daily.

For this reason I want to ask you , beg you all, to go support the March for Babies. Melissa is the HBIC (Head Blogger in Charge) if you will, of this crazy online infertile community. She has created this amazing supportive community. In the past few weeks, there have been some horrible losses in our community, and Melissa is walking in honor of not only her twins (who spent 3 weeks in the NICU), but in honor of Zoe and Lennox, who are no longer with us.

I can't imagine the heartbreak of losing a child, but I know that I want to support anything that helps children fight to stay alive. So I'm donating to Melissa's team for the March of Dimes. You should too. Look at your kids, see how beautiful and lucky you are, and then click below and give a few dollars. It can be $1, $5 or $1 million dollars. It doesn't matter how much. Just support. I feel lucky that my kids never had to see the NICU for more than a few minutes, but I sure as shit want to support all the amazing good the NICU does, and all that babies that have had to spend time there, especially in honor of the babies that are no longer with us.

Why You Should Donate to Team On the Road (and join the team yourself)

Thanks,
Erica

Happy Easter ... and a whole slew of other stuff ...

2008-03-23T20:23:00.007-05:00

I know, I've been a bad blogger. Works been crazy, and the nights have been lazy, and I just haven't felt like writing. Plus, I didn't have much to say.

Well, things have changed a bit. Here is a fantastic story for you.

So, Saturday night we were all just home. It was around 630pm and we just finished changing the twins into their pjs. I was getting bottles, and the kids were playing in the family room. Eric was with them. Hailey LOVES our phone. Just loves it. She's always holding it and carrying it around with her. So she was doing that, same as always. So I warm up the bottles and bring them in. Just as we were setting up to give them bottles, the phone rings. I answer it. They say "Hello, this is 911 dispatch. We just received a 911 call from this number."

OH MY GOD!!!

Hailey called 911. Are you kidding me??? I apologized profusely to the operator, and said my daughter was holding the phone and must have accidentally dialed it. The operator was just like "Ok." and that was it. But that WASN'T it!

Five minutes later, as we are feeding them, there is a knock on the door. You HAVE to be kidding me. Eric gets up to answer it, it's a policeman. He needed to come and check up to make sure I wasn't like getting beaten by Eric. It was SO mortifying. He stayed for like 10 minutes and was chit-chatting with us about the twins, but he was TOTALLY staying to see if maybe I was like being abused and it was actually me that called 911, and then got cold feet. The whole thing was just insane. So finally the cop left, and now Eric thinks that the cops in our town thing he is an abusive husband. hehe.

So, needless to say, there will be no more kids touching phones in our house.

What else??

We went to get our picture taken with the Easter Bunny yesterday. That was fun. It was like a 1 hour wait, and then the picture wasn't even good. The kids were SO not into it, and basically just wanted to get out of there. Also, there was a fan blowing on the bunny to keep him cool, so the kids hair is blowing up in the air. But, my brother works at the stand, so we got everything for free. So I don't really care that it wasn't a great picture. If you click on the picture and enlarge it, you can see Jake's hair flying up the air from the fan ... it just looks crazy!

The kids ate like little PIGGIES this weekend. After seeing the bunny on Saturday, we took them to this Italian place for lunch and they loved the macaroni, and meat sauce, and Jake was loving Aunt Chrissy's sausage. It was so funny to watch them. We took these pics, and Eric said they look like vampires.

We had a nice Easter today. Originally my mom was going to host Easter and just have us, my sister and her husband and my brother. But then I said "Hey, why don't you still go ahead and cook everything, but we'll do it at my house!" And that's what we did. Since we were hosting, we also had Eric's parents, and his sister and her two kids. Really, I didn't have to do much. My sister did the antipasto and salad, my mom made all the food, and my in-laws brought dessert. Fabulous! So we had lots of yummy food, lots of good conversation, and our entire families together. You can't ask for more than that!!

The kids made out like little bandits. Grandma bought them 2 Easter Buckets, along with two chickens that make noise. Yes, it sounds like a nightmare! But they were really cute. Her bucket says "Chicks Rule" and his says "Chick Magenet". There were Animal Crackers and Teddy Grahams and bubbles and they were very happy with them. Here's their loot from Grandma.

We also gave them Easter Baskets. They are so cute. We got them from PersonalizationMall.com. We put Puffs, a bath toy, an Elmo rattle, some other cute stuffed things, and a Mets outfit in there baskets for each of them. As well as a pair of bunny ear. They also each got an Elmo book, but only one of them made it into the picture.

And here is a picture of the happy family on Easter Day. This picture was taken in the middle of too much chaos, and when they were way overdue for a nap! Oh well, we have many years of family pictures to come that will probably come out a bit better than this!!

Now, I would just like to add that just as I was about to end this post, Jake woke up and threw up all over his crib, himself, and once I picked him up, me as well. Oh well, I guess maybe too many rich foods for him today. We stripped his crib, dropped him in the bath, and now he's back to sleep. Did I ever mention it's tough being a mom??

So it's now like 130am, and I'm still awake. He's been dry-heaving and spitting up bile (I know, TMI) since like 10pm. So he's back to sleep again (after 1 bath, 2 changes of crib sheets and 3 changes of clothes) but there is no way I'm going to sleep. I'm a nervous wreck. So looks like momma will be up all night.

Fun times, my friends, fun times.

Erica